Rural School Leaflet 



1017 



LETTER TO GIRLS AND BOYS 



Dear Girls and Boys: 



November is here, and with it the oppor- 

 tunity to write to you again. There is much 

 to say, for it is a long time since my last letter 

 in March. Spring and siunmer have come and 

 gone, and autumn is well along. Thanksgiving 

 is near at hand and Cliristmas will soon be here. 

 You all can remember the closing weeks of 

 school in May and June. The earth was alive 

 with growing things, the air was sweet and 

 fresh, and you could feel the pulse of smnmcr. 

 You remember Arbor Day, and what you did 

 to improve the school groiuids, cleaning up, and 

 -J'-'" - .-,-, perhaps planting a tree or a shrub or a flower 



bed. You remember the trips to the woods 

 and fields taken with the teacher, and the new things that were learned 

 about the birds, the trees and flowers, and the wild animals and insects. 

 I hope that you had several such trips, and that this fall you have 

 been out again observing nature at another season — the season of the 

 harvest. 



You remember, also, the last day of school and the little picnic together 

 before disbanding for the vacation months. You were sorry to leave, 

 for it had been a pleasant year, yet you looked forward to the long summer 

 days at home. Letters have already come to me telling what some of you 

 did during the vacation time. One boy kept a fine flock of poultry ; another 

 took care of the horses and helped to train a colt; another assisted in the 

 general farm work, preparing the soil, sowing and planting, ha\dng, reaping, 

 threshing, and all the round of farm labor. The girls have been keeping 

 bees, and raising calves, washing dishes, making beds, learning to cook 

 and to sew and to keep a home neat and clean. Both boys and girls have 

 had gardens, and many tried to follow the plan given in the ]\Iarch leaflet. 

 I had a garden on this plan, also, and learned much that was new and 

 interesting. In a later leaflet we shall talk more about this, and I hope 

 every one who tried the plan will write me about it because next year we 

 must make it better. 



The vacation has not been all work, and 3'ou have had good times out 

 of doors in the fields and woods, on the roads and by-paths, along the 

 streams and edges of ponds, singing, whistling, fishing, swimming, running, 

 jumping, playing; all the while breathing the pure, fresh air, and watching 

 and listening for something new to learn about the wild things. 



