Harper's Young People, June 22, 1880 / An Illustrated Weekly

RECESS AT THE ACADEMY.—Drawn by A. B. Shults.
aby, Bee, and Butterfly, Underneath the summer sky. Baby, bees, and birds together, Happy in the pleasant weather; Sunshine over all around, In the sky, and on the ground; Hiding, too, in Baby's eyes, As he looks in mute surprise At the sunbeams tumbling over Merrily amid the clover, Where the bees, at work all day, Never find the time for play. Happy little baby boy! Tiny heart all full of joy; Loving everything on earth, As love welcomed him at birth; Ever learning new delights, Ever seeing pleasant sights; Taking each day one step more Than he ever took before. Shine out, sunbeams, warm and bright, Lengthen daytime, shorten night, Till so wise he grows that he Spells baby with a great big B .
One hundred and twenty years ago there lived a plain, honest farmer in the beautiful town of Woodstock, in the province of Connecticut, by the name of Eaton. He belonged to the fine, intelligent New England stock, and did his duty like a man in the state of life to which God had been pleased to call him, working on his farm in summer, and teaching school in winter; for he needed all he could earn to put bread in the mouths of his thirteen children, who were taught early to help themselves, after the fashion of their stalwart Anglo-Saxon forefathers. One of Farmer Eaton's boys, named William, was born February 23, 1764, and was a high-spirited, clever, reckless little chap, keeping his mother continually in a state of anxiety on his account; indeed, if she had not been so used to boys with their pranks and unlimited thirst for adventures, I think Bill would have been the death of her, for she never knew what he would be about next. For all his love of sport and out-door amusement, the boy was so fond of reading that he nearly always managed to conceal a book in his pocket when he went out to work in the fields or woods, and often, when left alone, or when his companions stopped for rest or meals, Bill would steal time to read. When his elders caught him at it he would often get soundly scolded for not being better employed, but the very next chance he would be at it again.