206 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. 



meets all neighbors and they get outside the narrow routine 

 of home life into the broader home life of the whole com- 

 munity, of the state, of the nation, of the world. He ovght 

 to be broad and strong in his physical and mental life, it 

 would be a shame if he were not. 



On the other hand, his wife seldom gets out of doors long 

 enough to do her any good — she doesn't realize that the 

 whiffs of fresh air she gets are not enough to help her to 

 endure the stifling heat of that kitchen stove. She wants 

 to do all she can toward lifting the debt, and so she strug- 

 gles on without help in the kitchen, and generally, with 

 several little children about her. They are about all the 

 company she has. All she needs, you say! Nay, not so. I 

 yield to no one in love for childhood's ways and thoughts, 

 but I want some ways and thoughts besides theirs to incite me 

 to my best. When I taught little children, I sought more ad- 

 vanced reading,sought lectures,sought the company of people 

 who never thought of the schoolroom,that I might not "fall in- 

 to ruts," that I might not become so habituated to childish 

 ways and thoughts that I should be unable to think of any- 

 thing else. This average farm mother seldom goes among 

 her neighbors. Company is a great event to be prepared 

 for with so much labor as to make it a dread. When 

 she goes to the neighboring village she hurries through her 

 purchases and is so worried over them that she scarcely 

 sees the entrance of the woman who might give her a 

 thought to refresh her ; she may go to church, but she must 

 take all her children, and it is no small job to dress them 

 for church, even if she dresses them plainly, and she is too 

 tired to appreciate the thought the sermon contained for 

 her. She reads little, she sees little of life, she loses hope, 

 faith, courage. She often tells young girls that if they 

 know when they are well off they will nob marry, and she 

 tells older unmarried " girls " that they have shown good 

 sense ; she gets year by year to care more for the money 

 that all this hard work brings, and she forgets that life was 

 not given her simply to bear children and save money. 

 Have I made too dark a picture ? I know there are some 



