their cure.

{129}

It has been said that a man's pleasures give us his true measure, and
that to change the measure is to change the man. From this point of
view, the subject of recreation is very near the heart of the friendly
visitor's relation with the poor. We may have made a conscientious
study of the family expenses and income, of the sanitary surroundings,
of the work record and diet, but we shall not know the family until we
know what gives them pleasure. One visitor says that she never feels
acquainted with a poor family until she has had a good laugh with them.
A defective sense of humor in the visitor is a great hindrance to
successful work: poor people are no fonder of dismal folk than the rest
of us. When we come to recreations, friendly visiting not only makes
large demands upon what we know, but upon what we are. Our pleasures
measure us quite as much as they measure our poor friends, and, unless
we have kept fresh our own power of enjoyment, we cannot hope to impart
this power to the poor, or to give them new and better wants.

Granting that we have them ourselves, what {130} are some of the
healthy wants that we should try to pass on to the poor? Taking the
simplest first, we should try to introduce simple games and a love of
pure fun into the family circle. I am indebted to Miss Beale of the
Boston Children's Aid Society for the following list of simple games,
so arranged as to include standing and sitting games for each evening:

FIRST EVENING. SECOND EVENING.

1. Hiding the thimble. 1. Stage coach.
2. Bean bag. 2. Buzz.
3. Dominoes. 3. Elements.

THIRD EVENING. FOURTH EVENING.

1. Hot butter blue beans. 1. How, when, and where.
2. Jack straws. 2. Counting buzz.
3. Fruit basket. 3. Magical spelling.

FIFTH EVENING. SIXTH EVENING.

1. Go-bang. 1. Tea-kettle.
2. Spot on the carpet. 2. Musical chairs.
3. Throwing lights. 3. Logomachy.

SEVENTH EVENING. EIGHTH EVENING.

1. Telling a story. 1. Pigs in clover.
2. Blowing the feather. 2. I have a rooster to sell.
3. Authors. 3. Courtesying.

In teaching such games it is best to begin with the children, but the
parents can {131} sometimes be induced to join in. Story-telling is