The Bulletin 49 



Tlie Farm as a Home. 



A. Li. Fkench. 



One night I was driving far from any liome and far from any town; and 

 realizing tliat my little mares had already carried me further that day than 

 they should have been asked to do, I sought a stopping place for the night. 



Off to the right of the ridge road I was traveling, down in the center of a 

 charming little valley — along the edge of which I had been traveling for 

 fifteen miles or more — sparkled the bright lights of a farm home, and I 

 turned the little mares in this direction. Do you know that you can judge 

 quite closely many times of the quality of a home, in the country, by the 

 character of the lights at night as seen from a distance? A well illuminated 

 room speaks of good cheer and hospitality, and the lights shining clear and 

 strong off into the night indicate that the window lights are clean and 

 shining. 



My apology for intruding at that time of the night was cut short by the 

 good lady of the house with the assertion that they deemad it no intrusion 

 for a stranger to join their family circle for a night, and the kindly look 

 in her eye and the hearty handclasp from the head of the house assured me 

 that I had run accidentally upon the "real thing" in country hospitality. 



And as the evening progressed, with music, games, stories, and discussion 

 of the weighty problems connected with living and home-making of that 

 time, the impression grew upon me that I had come upon one more of those 

 pillars upon which our great country has been builded, viz., the country 

 home, where dwell intelligent, patriotic, home-loving, well-to-do people. 



As I stepped into the big living room there by the great open fire-place sat 

 the aged grandmother, and in her lap lay a copy of the latest issue of the 

 Ladies Home Journal, and — bless her old heart — she had been studying the 

 fashion page. But — and right here I stumbled onto one of the reasons for 

 the well-dressed, well-to-do, look of all the children in that large family — 

 grandma was not studying fashions for her own benefit, but was aiding in 

 planning a new winter suit for the oldest daughter of the house. And a 

 little quiet observation showed me that the material of all the ladies' gowns 

 was of the most substantial sort and had not the home maintained, in the 

 person of the grandmother, wife and eldest daughter, a first-class dressmaking 

 plant, the dressmaking bill of that home would have cut deeply into the 

 revenue from the farm. 



The books and papers on the large center-table attracted my attention. 

 There was the Chicago Advance, the great "Congregational" church paper of 

 that section, and hovering close to the Advance was The Breeder's Gazette 

 and Wallace's Farmer, and a copy of the new Saturday Evening Post — then 

 just starting under the present ownership. The New York Tribune spoke to 

 me of the soundness of the politics of the man of the house, and the Century, 

 St. Nicholas, Independent, and Youth's Companion of the clean thinking of 

 all the members of the family. Then, of course, along with these high-class 

 papers and magazines we would naturally expect to find Longfellow, Scott, 

 Moore, Tennyson, Shakespeare, and some of the standard works of fiction, 

 and all of them with marks indicating that they were not being kept for 

 show. And in the book cases the standard histories and latest dictionaries 

 told more plainly than could words of the constant mind training of all the 

 members of the family. 



One of the young ladies upon being asked if the young folks did not get 

 lonesome at times, living so many miles from town, replied: "Oh, no; we 

 don't have time. All the younger ones go to school and when they return 

 home have certain jobs of work to attend to before supper; then we who stay 

 at home have the housekeeping to look after and the care of the poultry and 

 butter-making devolves upon us also. Then after we have the supper work 

 finished there is the music, and then one night each week our literary society 

 has a meeting at the schoolhouse, and of course we have a party or sleigh-ride 

 now and then. If we had any more to occupy our evenings I don't see how 

 we would find time to do the reading we want to do in order to keep up with 

 the times." 



