No. 6. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 659 



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term. How glad she is when she can tell mamma what her reading 

 lesson is about or the new words she learned to spell that day. 



At the close of the first term of school she is quite a different 

 girl. She has new ideas and new thoughts of which every one is 

 a pleasure to her. She has become acquainted with all her little 

 neighbors; she knows something of her surroundings and is now 

 old enough to be of some use to her mother about the house. How 

 happy she is going out with mamma to feed the little chicks or 

 calves and see the snow-white lambs that are always found about 

 the farm, with other boundless pleasures which her city cousin 

 knows nothing of. As she grows older many new pleasures and 

 privileges arise before her. She lives in ecstacy from the blooming 

 of the first fragrant blossoms of spring until the ripening of the 

 delicious fruits in autumn. How eagerly she helps gather the many 

 kinds of fruit that lie in abundance around her. This work and 

 pleasure over she is now looking forward to the commencement of 

 school again when she will meet all her former acquaintances and 

 have such good times. 



It is almost impossible for me to illustrate to the city girls who 

 are present to-night, with what pleasure the farmer's daughter 

 looks forward to the opening of the school term. Many of our 

 schoolmates we do not see from the time school has closed in the 

 spring till it opens in the fall. We have had sufficient physical 

 exercise during vacation that we look forward to school, not as a 

 place which the law compels us to spend six hours a day for five 

 days in the week and 28 weeks in the year, but as a place where we 

 can gain a great deal of knowledge as well as have a good time. 

 During the school term our evenings after supper are not spent 

 coasting or attending parties but with our books. The farmer's 

 daughter centers her mind on her lessons during the school hours 

 and spends from one to three hours each evening of school days 

 preparing her lessons for the next day. This answers the question, 

 Why a farmer's daughter in nine cases out of ten has a more thor- 

 ough understanding of the branches taught in public schools at 

 the age of fifteen than her city cousins. This goes on from year to 

 year and we will leave her to enjoy herself as she passes through 

 her school years and childhood days. 



We now have before us a rosy cheeked, plump, healthy girl of 

 eighteen summers. She is all joy and laughter and is practically 

 "boss" of the surroundings. She superintends the greater part of 

 the housework which mother has intrusted to her. The work is not 

 hard for her. She has grown up with it and knows just what to 

 do and how it should be done. We see her on a May morning as 

 she trips down the pathway to the farmyard with a pail on either 

 arm, her rosy cheeks all aglow, singing some familiar song. The 

 cows know her voice and come to greet her. After milking the cows 

 she tends to the milk and feeds the young stock. All this is a pleas- 

 ure to her as it helps support all in the family. 



She has a fair education, is healthy and has many advantages over 

 her city cousins, who are penned up in the smoky city. 



But I do not wish to take up too much time. While there is much 

 to be said in favor of the farmer's daughter, I will only draw a few 

 more sketches. You will see her on Sabbath morning on her wav 

 to Sabbath school or church. She is seldom ever in a closed car- 



