The Little Folks of House and Farm. 213 



soul of our soul. The question, how to rear and educate these 

 small men and women that come welcome or unwelcome, as well 

 to the palatial ciiy home as to the most humble and remote farm 

 house, is one of absorbing interest. One writer says, if you would 

 educate a man, you must begin with his grandmother. While 

 this may be somewhat discouraging to the literary hopes of those 

 who are not so fortunate as to have had educated grandmothers, 

 it ought to rouse every woman who has prospective grandchildren 

 in the near or remote future, to send down through its legitimate 

 avenues all the culture — intellectual, moral and spiritual — that 

 she can acquire. " But," say some, " we are grown women already ; 

 we are farmers', or mechanics', or merchants', or lawyers' wives; 

 we are mothers ; our school days are ended; we finished our some- 

 what limited education years ago." Dear sister, there is an edu- 

 cation that is never finished, the only true education that hungers 

 for its daily food and thirsts for its daily drink. Education is not 

 acquired in the schools — only a larger capacity for education ; 

 and one may have all that the schools can give him, and if he 

 failed to build on this foundation the beautiful structure of after- 

 culture, he will never be educated. We need the firm foundation 

 and broader outlook that the schools and colleges give us, but he 

 who has neither by nature or acquisition that something higher 

 than these, will find himself outstripped in the race by his less 

 favored brother, who has fresh and warm within him the real 

 love of knowledge. Give this priceless jewel to every mother in 

 the land, and we may say : " Rest the ashes of our grandmothers. 

 Our sons and daughters will grow up pure, and wise, and good." 

 Even the weary mother of the farm children will find that where 

 there is a determined will there is a way, and by using, little by 

 little, the opportunities of improvement that come to her, will ac- 

 quire to herself the power of reaching and appropriating greater 

 ones. It is scarcely reasonable to expect our children to grow 

 up models of excellence unless we ourselves are, in some sense, 

 exponents of the beautiful precepts we strive to inculcate. A 

 very .young mother once said of her child, "I want him to grow 

 up wise and intellectual and good. How shall I accomplish my 

 desire?" "Be so yourself," said a gentle, white-haired woman 



