thers on shore, as they feel disposed.

* * * * *

=Canoe-parties= on coast and river are also popular with both ladies and
gentlemen, and here again the useful launch is brought into requisition
to convey the party home, as an hour and a half to two hours is an
average time to paddle a canoe; after that time the party land either on
the rocks or on the shore, and light a fire and boil the kettle for tea.
If the tea-drinking and the after-tea ramble are unduly prolonged there
is a chance, if on the coast, of the steam-launch running out of coal,
and of the party having to return home in their own canoes considerably
later than was expected, and not a little fatigued.

CHAPTER XXIX

JUVENILE PARTIES

=Juvenile Parties= form a prominent feature in the entertainments given
during the winter months. There is scarcely a household the children of
which are not indulged with one large party at least, while others are
allowed as many as two or three children's parties during the winter
months. These parties offer no little elasticity as to their
arrangement, varying from a child's tea party, composed, perhaps, of
five or six children, to a juvenile ball, or fancy dress ball. Some
mothers object, on principle, to the latter entertainments, on the
ground that to give a large juvenile ball provokes a corresponding
number of invitations, and that a round of such gaieties is not good for
young children, either from a moral or from a hygienic point of view.
Morally, that such amusements are likely to destroy or impair the
freshness of childhood, and to engender artificial ideas in their young
minds in place of such as are natural and healthy, and that the
imitation of the manners and bearing of their elders causes them to
become miniature men and women, and divests them of the attributes of
artless and unaffected childhood.

* * * * *

=The dresses worn by children= at these entertainments are of so
elaborate a character--and so much pride is exhibited when wearing
them--that a spirit of vanity and a love of dress are aroused at a
prematurely early age. From a physical point of view, late hours, heated
rooms, rich dainties, and constant excitement have a pernicious effect
upon children.

There is, of course, an opposite view taken by those who uphold juvenile
balls; they consider that children are the better for associating with
others of their own age ou