240 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



at home and at school, while they are yet young, the care of 

 those who are in their homes today and those who may be to- 

 morrow. Do you know that a very great per cent of the con- 

 tagious diseases that we have come through what we eat and what 

 we drink and what we breathe? Not a bad thing, then, do you 

 think, that we teach our girls at home and at school the care of 

 the food we eat, the water we drink and the air we breathe? 



Sometimes I hear girls say, "I don't know how to sew; 

 I don't know how to cook and I don't know how to keep house, 

 and I don't care if I don't, because I will never have that to do, 

 don't you know?" I feel sorry for the girl who says that be- 

 cause I know she does not appreciate the fact that woman did 

 not always hold the position in society that she holds in America 

 today; I know she does not appreciate the fact that the American 

 home is the greatest institution the world has produced, that is 

 the home life of America that makes America great in the eyes of 

 other peoples in other lands; I know she does not appreciate the 

 position she holds when she is made mistress over the greatest 

 of all the world's institutions, "An American home out in the 

 open country." 



Somebody has said, "There is no such thing as luck. Great 

 things never did just happen. They are always the result of 

 somebody's hard, earnest work, somebody's carelessness or 

 somebody's ignorance. 



"There is never a song that the breeze whispers low, 



There is never a note that the bugle may blow 



Like the lilt and the croon of the old-fashioned tune 



That babes on the arms of their glad mothers know; 



There is never a song that goes to the throne 



Where angel hosts sing and trumpets are blown, 



Like the low note and clear 



That falls on the ear of the baby in arms 



Like the dear mother tone; 



That keynote to every home, 



No human words can reach so high. 



The sweetest song that ere was sung is 



By-O-Baby, Bye-O-Bye." \ 



< 



Right in connection with this a story is told of a woman and 

 her baby. The woman prayed that she might go into foreign 

 fields to convert the heathen, but the poet tells us that the Lord 

 in answering her prayer answered it thus: 



"I have many a voict> that is loud and strong 



To speak to the world for me. 



But no one in all the woi-ld to sing a lullaby song 



To this wee little babe but thee. 



And the song was so sweet 



And the song was so soft 



That the babe on her bosom smiled; 



And the world that was weary of toil and strife 



Saw God in the mother and child." 



