TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
—Obvious print and punctuation errors were corrected.
—The transcriber of this project created the book cover image using the title page ofthe original book. The image is placed in the public domain.
Popular Pastimes
FOR
Field and Fireside,
OR
Amusements for Young and Old.
CAREFULLY COMPILED BY
AUNT CARRIE.
SPRINGFIELD, MASS.:PUBLISHED BY MILTON BRADLEY & CO.1867.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, byMILTON BRADLEY & COMPANY,In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
SAMUEL BOWLES AND COMPANY.Printers, Binders and Electrotypers.
AUNT CARRIE
DEDICATES
TO HER YOUNG FRIENDS
IN THE HOPE THAT IT WILL ADDTO THEIR
HOME PLEASURES.
Preface.
I WOULD like to make a few suggestions on“home influence,” before I commence a list ofamusements. They may be superfluous; if so,I trust you will pardon me.
All parents, I am sure, must feel a deep interestin this subject, and I think will agree withme that judicious praise is quite as necessaryin the training of a child as wholesome correction.But if we wish our children to havea genuine love for us, and our homes, we must sympathizewith them, and never forget we were once children, and lovedchildish things.
Mothers have by nature far more sympathy and patiencethan most fathers. Some fathers are apt to think that homeis only a place in which to eat, sleep, and be generally comfortable;but as to giving any of their valuable time toentertaining their own children, why, the very idea is preposterous!A wife is presuming to expect it! Let me appealto your selfish instincts. You all wish to be loved and[vi]revered, and are gratified if your children are attentive toyour comforts. Can you expect such manifestations, unlessyou set them an example, and prove by a real interest intheir pleasures, that you sincerely love them? Is it not betterto devote at least an hour a day to your chi