Reading in the Farm Home 



1097 



modem novels off the list of books worth reading. And one would feel 

 defrauded of two delightful companions if he did not know " Rebecca 

 of Sunnybrook Farm " and " Anne of Green Gables." Never 

 to have felt the charm of Colonel Carter's manners or of Babbie's 

 bewitching ways would be a real loss to any lover of womankind. The 

 question of fiction reading is a question of selection. We must have 

 fiction in our farm library, but it must be carefully selected. 



Poetry, of course, we shall need. " A single poem that warms the 

 affections, elevates the soul, 

 excites the ; imagination, 

 kindles the emotions and 

 arouses noble aspirations 

 may be worth more to 

 myriads of readers than a 

 whole hbrary of fact, argu- 

 ment, exhortation and 

 edification." 



Among our inspirational 

 books, biography also 

 should have a conspicuous 

 place. Could any one find 

 better food for thought 

 than in Franklin's " Auto- 

 biography," Booker Wash- 

 ington's "Up from slavery," 

 Alice Freeman Palmer's 

 " Life," or " The story of 

 Helen Keller " ? John 

 Graham Brooks' " A story 

 of an American citizen: a 

 life of William Henry Bald- 

 win, Jr.," published last 

 year, is a book in which 

 many young men cannot fail tO take a vital interest. It is the story of a 

 young man with a "straight and honest life record," a young man who 

 succeeded in business and still maintained his high moral integrity: a 

 splendid contrast to the type of man that is now figuring so largely in the 

 muckraking articles appearing in the magazines. It is the story of a man 

 who amassed wealth honestly and who has been described as the " Galahad 

 of the market place" — just the sort of person for young men to know. 



Children's books. — There is such a wealth of literature now published 

 for children that one is almost bewildered in trying to select for them accord- 

 42 



Fig. 36. — One of our stations 



