SOCIETY OF CENTRAL ILLINOIS. 301 



but, not despairing, next year the twigs sprout up again twice as 

 nnmerons as the year before; so year after year are devoured, and as 

 often grow out again, multiplying botli in nauil)er and in strength, 

 till they form a little pyramidal mass almost as solid and impenetrable 

 as a rock. At length, after some twenty years of this persistent 

 growth, in sjiite of constant repression, the thickest becomes so 

 broad ami strong as to form its own fence, so that the cattle can not 

 reach its center at all. Then some interior shoot, safe from its foes, 

 darts upward with joy, for it has not forgotten its high calling; the 

 other twigs give to it all their repressed energy, and, in giving it, 

 disappear, leaving the central twig to become a mighty tree, crowned 

 with its dark-green foliage, and bearing fruit in triumph. What a 

 sermon of ])atient aspiration does the wild apple tree ])reach. As it 

 has learned to struggle with its bovine foes, still mounting upward 

 all the while, as though determined to reach a higher atmosphere, 

 clinging to its long-cherished vision of the time yet coming when it 

 should hold its leafy cups to the vapors of the sky. 



So let human nature struggle aiul aspire in spite of evil powers 

 that browse upon the springing tendrils of desire; not only dreaming 

 of the highest blessedness, but mounting upward, ever upward, to 

 waving foliage and golden fruit. 



ORNAMENTATION OF COUNTRY SCHOOL HOUSE AND 

 CHURCH GROUNDS AND ITS INFUENCE UPON 



THE YOUNG. 



BY W. H. LA MONTE. 



Next to the home there are, perhaps, no other two institutions 

 which exert a more potent and lasting influence upon the young 

 than the church and school. Each of these has its own peculiar 

 and individual functions to perform, in rearing, christianizing and 

 educating the rising generation. T^i)on the utility, perfection and 

 efficacy of these institutions largely depend the destiny, future pros- 

 j)erity and national influence of our State and country. The more 

 general and symmetrical the education of any people, the better 

 fitted thev are to properly govern themselves, successfully administer 

 their own financial and other affairs, and take part in and exert 

 their share of influence in all international questions affecting the 

 welfare of the governments of the world. 



To produce a people having these (jualifications, the first step 

 must be taken in the home. Here the child is nurtured, kept in 

 healthful condition, and impressed with such ideas as its young 

 mind can grasp, until it is old enough to enter the school; where, if 

 the foundation of bodily health and nuuital vigor ha\*e been properly 

 laid in the home, its possibilities for intellectual growth and develop- 

 ment are almost limitless. Closely attached, and many times united 

 with the school, is the church, whose province it is to shape and ex- 



