718 ANNUAL REPORTv OF THE Off. Doc. 



liai)i)iest Lome. Rude log walls may enclose that treasure of rare 

 worth — a model home. 



The model home is a hospitable home. The stranger is ever wel- 

 comed to it. To entertain well is a grace well worth cultivating. 

 And yet we are to remembei', that while strangers are to be received 

 and entertained, this is not the real purpose of the home. It exists 

 for its own members first of all. But the influence of a good home 

 never ends there. It cannot be bounded but goes on and on in an 

 ever widening circle w^hose limit will be seen only in another world. 



THE HOME AND THE SCHOOL. 



By MISS FLORENCE CROW, Duncannon. Pa. 



In the midst of all the helpful things that are being said by which 

 you will profit in improving your farms and raising the standard to 

 which the successful farmer must attain, I come with a plea for 

 more attention to the most valuable thing raised on the farm — the 

 children. You will say, ''Are we not already straining every nerve 

 to be able to leave something behind for them when we are gone?" 

 Ah, parents; give them something now, not in dollars and cents, 

 but in that which will make them self-reliant; able to cope Avith 

 difficulties in the battle of life; men and women of whom you may 

 be proud long before you think of laying down "these robes of flesh." 

 Give them an education. It is not necessary that money be spent to 

 send the boys and girls to college, although where this is possible, 

 it is the best investment you can make, but if, instead of complain- 

 ing of taxes, you would see to it that the money was wisely spent 

 to obtain good teachers and needed supplies and then do your part 

 toward the child's course in the public school, w^e would have a well- 

 educated class of people. You wonder what you can do for your 

 child when you have so much work and have not looked at a book 

 since you left school. Let me tell you: 



First, a duty which belongs to every parent, no matter how exten- 

 sive or how meagre his education, is to send his children regularly 

 to school. Nothing is more discouraging to a teacher than irregular 

 attendance. The class goes on. There is no time to make up back 

 lessons when they come but one or two days in the week, and the 

 pupils are not fit to go on to harder work without it. Is it any 

 wonder the teacher loses interest and devotes her time to those w'ho 

 profit by it? 



As for the children, if they are naturally listless, they will glance 

 at the book indifferently, think they do not know what it is all about 

 anyway, and just drift. Then they stay at home more yet because 

 they never learn anything. Naturally active children will either 

 w^ork away at their mammoth tasks or get into more mischief than 

 the busy teacher knows how to keep them out of. They will come 



