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WORKING FOR AN EMPLOYER
I
F a boy or girl expects some day to engage in some clerical occupation, office work with a good employer is a good way to spend the summer vacation. Work in an insurance office, for example, is of excellent value as giving one an insight into an important profession involving the keeping of accurate accounts, making estimates and of meeting individuals successfully.
In searching for a summer occupation, Prof. William A. McKeever names four important requirements. The first was that the work should not be so arduous as to overtax one's strength and so make one tired of it. Second, try to provide for some periods of rest, play, and recreation. Third, try to form a connection with some important type of industry. Fourth, do not place the money returns above its other considerations. Among the occupations of educational value, the writer suggests especially gardening, carpentry, farm work, and marketing produce.
Many a boy does not realize that an easy, quick method of earning money is not always thoroughly desirable. If a boy secures a position that pays $3.00 a day, while, as a matter of fact, he is really earning not more than 30 cents a day, he is likely to become dissatisfied with any reasonable reward that he gets afterward. The first question to ask when a boy secures a position is not, How much can I earn? but, How much can I learn? On the whole, it is better if the work required of a growing boy be somewhat rough and health-giving, and involving practical businesslike methods.
One boy of our acquaintance wanted to work on a farm in the summer. He was but fourteen, so his father hunted up a farmer who would be fair to him. The boy learned how to do all kinds of work well. At last accounts it had been
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