Charles Dudley Warner ( b. 1829 ) was born at Plainfield, Mass. In 1851 he graduated at Hamilton College, and in 1856 was admitted to the bar at Philadelphia, but moved to Chicago to practice his profession. There he remained until 1860, when he became connected with the press at Hartford, Conn., and has ever since devoted himself to literature. "My Summer in a Garden," "Saunterings," and "Backlog Studies"are his best known works. The following extract is from "Being a Boy."

Say what you will about the general usefulness of boys, it is my impression that a farm without a boy would very soon come to grief. What the boy does is the life of the farm. He is the factotum, always in demand, always expected to do the thousand indispensable things that nobody else will do. Upon him fall all the odds and ends, the most difficult things.

After everybody else is through, he has to finish up. His work is like a woman's,—perpetually waiting on others. Everybody knows how much easier it is to eat a good dinner than it is to wash the dishes afterwards. Consider what a boy on a farm is required to do,—things that must be done, or life would actually stop.

It is understood, in the first place, that he is to do all the errands, to go to the store, to the post office, and to carry all sorts of messages. If he had as many legs as a centiped, they would tire before night. His two short limbs seem to him entirely inadequate to the task. He would like to have as many legs as a wheel has spokes, and rotate about in the same way.

This he sometimes tries to do; and the people who have seen him "turning cart wheels" along the side of the road, have supposed that he was amusing himself and idling his time; he was only trying to invent a new mode of locomotion, so that he could economize his legs, and do his errands with greater dispatch.

He practices standing on his head, in order to accustom himself to any position. Leapfrog is one of his methods of getting over the ground quickly. He would willingly go an errand any distance if he could leapfrog it with a few other boys.

He has a natural genius for combining pleasure with business. This is the reason why, when he is sent to the spring for a pitcher of water, he is absent so long;for he stops to poke the frog that sits on the stone, or, if there is a penstock, to put his hand over the spout, and squirt the water a little while.

He is the one who spreads the grass when the men have cut it; he mows it away in the barn; he rides the horse, to cultivate the corn, up and down the hot, weary rows; he picks up the potatoes when they are dug; he drives the cows night and morning; he brings wood and water, and splits kindling; he gets up the horse, and puts out the horse; whether he is in the house or out of it, there is always something for him to do.

Just before the school in winter he shovels paths; in summer he turns the grindstone. He knows where there are lots of wintergreens and sweet flags, but instead of going for them, he is to stay indoors and pare apples, and stone raisins, and pound something in a mortar. And yet, with his mind full of schemes of what he would like to do, and his hands full of occupations, he is an idle boy, who has nothing to busy himself with but school and chores!

He would gladly do all the work if somebody else would do the chores, he thinks; and yet I doubt if any boy ever amounted to anything in the world, or was of much use as a man, who did not enjoy the advantages of a liberal education in the way of chores.

查爾斯·達(dá)德利·華納，1829年生于馬薩諸塞州的普雷恩非爾德。1851年畢業(yè)于漢密爾頓大學(xué)，1856年，費(fèi)城的法庭邀請(qǐng)他去做律師，但是他卻毅然選擇了到芝加哥發(fā)展他的事業(yè)。直到1860年，他與康涅狄格州哈特福德出版社有了聯(lián)系，從此投身文學(xué)。《花園中的夏天》《閑庭信步》和《儲(chǔ)備研究》是他最著名的作品。本文選自《作為一個(gè)男孩》。

來(lái)說(shuō)說(shuō)你覺(jué)得那些男孩們一般都有些什么作用吧。我覺(jué)得，農(nóng)場(chǎng)里要是沒(méi)有那些男孩們，便將荒蕪。那么男孩們?cè)谵r(nóng)場(chǎng)里究竟都做些什么來(lái)讓農(nóng)場(chǎng)不荒蕪呢？他是勤雜工，事無(wú)大小都需要他來(lái)處理，大家需要他做很多無(wú)人能替代的事。他也幾乎承擔(dān)了所有雜七雜八的事兒，還有那些最難做的事兒。

所有的人全都收工的時(shí)候，他還在處理最后的工作。他的工作就像婦女一樣，永遠(yuǎn)等待著收拾別人的餐具。眾所周知，美餐一頓固然要容易過(guò)飯后刷碗。想象一下，這就好比男孩們?cè)谵r(nóng)場(chǎng)上要干的活兒，但是這些事總得有人干，要不生活就沒(méi)辦法繼續(xù)。

我們知道，首先，他們得跑腿去商店、郵局等地傳遞所有的消息。即使他們的腿兒和蜈蚣一樣多，跑完這些差事也需要費(fèi)好大一番力氣，還沒(méi)到睡覺(jué)的時(shí)候，他們就都已經(jīng)累壞了。要完成這些差事，靠那兩條細(xì)腿還真是不夠用。他們的腿兒最好像車(chē)輪的木條一樣多，而且轉(zhuǎn)得一樣快。

而他們也的確在大部分時(shí)候都努力做到這樣。大家常常看到他們?cè)诘肋叀靶D(zhuǎn)車(chē)輪”，還以為他們是在玩耍嬉戲。其實(shí)，他們是在研究新的跑步方式，以便可以更有效地利用他們的雙腿，幫人們?nèi)マk更多的事情。

他們學(xué)習(xí)倒立，為了使自己習(xí)慣于各種姿勢(shì)。他門(mén)練習(xí)背躍，以更快地跳離地面。如果你讓他們一起邊練習(xí)背躍邊去跑腿，我相信他們絕對(duì)樂(lè)意這樣做。

他們天生就有這種能耐，可以勞逸結(jié)合。所以如果你讓他去打一桶泉水，他們也學(xué)好久都不會(huì)回來(lái)。因?yàn)樗麄儠?huì)在路上逗石頭上的青蛙玩，假若有水閥的話(huà)，他們便會(huì)雙手壓在水管口上玩一會(huì)兒水。

他們收集別人修剪下來(lái)的雜草和樹(shù)葉，再把這些搬到畜舍里，他們沿著熾熱單調(diào)的田壟騎馬種玉米，他們拾起挖出來(lái)的土豆，他們每天早晚都要去放牛，還要撿柴、打水、劈柴，他們也負(fù)責(zé)刷洗馬匹，哄哪些馬兒們睡覺(jué)；不論是室內(nèi)還是室外，總有做不完的事等著他們做。

開(kāi)學(xué)前的冬天，他們要負(fù)責(zé)鏟平道路；到了夏天，他們便要去拉磨。他們了解冬青草和菖蒲都生長(zhǎng)在哪里，但是他沒(méi)有去采摘它們，而是待在家里削蘋(píng)果，還有曬葡萄干和研磨果汁。雖然他的頭腦里滿(mǎn)是這樣那樣的計(jì)劃，但是他的手上全是這樣那樣的活，人們還是認(rèn)為他們都是游手好閑的人，除了上學(xué)和做些散工，什么也不會(huì)。

他們何嘗不是這樣想：如果別人愿意幫他們做這些散工，他便愿意承擔(dān)其它所有的工作。但是，我覺(jué)得如果男孩不能在這些散工中接受到普通的教育，到頭來(lái)他們可能真的什么都不會(huì)，永遠(yuǎn)無(wú)法成為一個(gè)能干的男人。