348 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



the diseases that so frequently break out, and, worse still, the learning; 

 of evil that so often belongs to the little red school house on the hill. 

 At home you can watch over the lives of young children more closely 

 and have healthier children and a better education, thereby requiring- 

 fewer years to be prepared for entering high school or college. To make 

 the boy or girl happy and contented in. home life they must have 

 music or art or whatever pleasure their tastes require. One of the 

 greatest factors for good in the home is to cultivate in the child a love 

 for good books, thus enabling them to entertain themselves while alone. 

 Friends and companions should be welcomed when out of school hours, 

 enabling the mother and father to know who their associates are, and tO' 

 choose for them in their youth, thus rendering them competent to se- 

 lect later in life friends who will prove a benefit and a blessing. 



The education of our children must be a life work. In our home 

 the school and music were the principal work of the day, nothing was- 

 allowed to interfere but sickness. Everything was carried on as in a 

 large, well disciplined school. We also had the Bible taught and read 

 as a text book, thereby gaining knowledge which, if not acquired when 

 young, is apt to be neglected later in life when other things crowd in. 

 In our home in winter we had our Sunday school, reading the Word of 

 God, reciting the Lord's Prayer in unison, singing, with one of the 

 girls at the piano, and taking of the collection. The pennies were saved 

 and sent to the Orphan's Home in St. Louis, enough having been given 

 in two years to buy a foot of ground for the Orphan's Home. 



Such practices teach the child in youth to be generous in giving 

 and to have regard for others. Our children each had home duties, and 

 work they were required to do daily. It is a serious question in the 

 minds of many whether it is best to pay the child a small sum of money 

 to stimulate to perform better work. 



In our home the children were paid, the money being put away in 

 a little bank, and once a year, at Christmas time, they opened the bank 

 and Christmas shopping was done, remembering each other, as well as 

 their friends. The value of such a fund none but a child can know. 



Parents owe it to their children to teach them to perform the daily 

 duties of home life, waiting on others rather than being waited on, there- 

 by developing in them the ability to share in the responsibilities of a 

 home. Love your children and tell them of your love often, sympathize 

 with them in sickness as well as in their troubles, both imaginary and 

 real, but not to the extent of making them believe they are too delicate 

 or too much petted to perform their part of the daily burden. The 

 wishes of small children should not be considered where their welfare 

 is concerned. I used to tell my children if they knew best they had no 



