234 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



because they are not comfortable that way. Then tell me, why 

 should we have the schoolhouse in the middle of the yard, the 

 stove in the middle of the room and the seats all nailed down? 



Now who was this boy that I have- told you about? I am 

 going to name him for you, though I think I need not do so for 

 I think you have seen him perhaps many, many times right in 

 your own community — the average Missouri country boy. 



What did he go down the lane for when he left the home 

 that morning? You tell me that he went down the lane to the 

 schoolhouse to get an education. What is an education and 

 what is it good for? I do not know what your idea of education 

 is, but I will give you mine. 



An education is a training for a life work of some kind, the 

 ultimate end of which is the building of a home. Did you ever 

 try to define that word home? It cannot be defined. Home 

 means so much to me. What does it mean to you? To some 

 people home is simply a place to sleep and eat — that is all. 

 Somebody said: "The world is as we take it and life is what 

 we make it." I say, "The world is as we take it and home is 

 what we make it." 



"To the teacher life is a school, 



Life is a good tiling to the grafter. 



But it is a failure to the fool. 



Life is a long vacation to the man who loves liis work, 



But it is an everlasting effort to shun duty to the shirk. 



To the earnest christian worker life is a story ever new. 



Life is what we try and make it^ 



Home is what we try and make it. 



Comrade, what is life and home to you?" 



And what will it be to all the boys and girls of Missouri who 

 go down the lane to the schoolhouse that I have described? Do 

 you know that of all the boys and girls that go down this lane 

 to the schoolhouse eighty-five out of every hundred never go to 

 school anywhere else; there they get all the training for their 

 life work, all the education they ever receive right there in that 

 little one-room country schoolhouse. What becomes of the 

 other fifteen per cent? Why, they go away to our colleges and 

 universities and become professional men and women. They 

 will take care of themselves. We need not worry about them 

 longer. 



But what about the eighty-five per cent? They are divided 

 into two classes: One class become dissatisfied with farm life. 

 These follow their classmates right along to the same towns and 

 the same cities, but they do not go there to go to school. The 



