liuRAL School Leaflet, 



1^45 



will be reading it 

 I wish I might drop 



FARM BOYS' AND GIRLS' CLUBS 

 My Dear Boys' and Girls: 



'USAN, Will, Dick, Kate and all the rest ot you. 

 Kere I am writing this on the day after 

 Lincoln's birthday. You 

 about the middle of March. 



this letter into the mail box so that it would 

 reach you in a day or two, but you see it has to 

 be printed in order that not only you but ':9,999 other 

 boys and girls may read it. But even j.'' Lincoln's 

 birthday will be a long tim.e past when you read this 

 letter, it is good to think about Lincoln, not onlyonnis 

 birthday anniversary, but on every day. I am going to 

 tell you some things that Ex-Governor Black said in his 

 address before the students of this University on Feb- 

 ruary 12th. I wish you might read all of that ad- 

 dress. This is a part of it: 

 " We understand the tremendous advantages of a humble birth. 

 When we realize that the privations of youth are the pillars of strength 

 t3 maturer years, then we shall cease to wonder that out of such obscure 

 surroundings as watched the coming of Abraham Lincoln should spring 

 the colossal and supreme figure of modern history. 



" Groves are better than temples, fields are better than gorgeous 

 carpeting, rail fences are better than lines of kneeling slaves, and the 

 winds are better than music if you are raising heroes and founding 

 governments. 



"It is not wealth that counts in the world, but character. And 

 character is best formed amid those surroundings where every waking 

 hour is filled with struggle, where no flag of truce is ever sent, and only 

 darkness stays the conflict. Give me the hut that is small enough, the 

 poverty that is deep enough, the love that is great enough, and over all 

 the fear of God, and I will raise from them the best there is in human 

 character.'' 



You will, T hope, read that passage over many times. It does us good 

 just to read such words as " Strength," " Heroes," " Character," and 

 " Struggle. ' Then you can dream you are a knight, and when the wood- 

 box gets empty you can fill it clear up to the top in a way that knights 

 would have done it if they had had wood boxes to fill. 



Last month we talked about testing the corn we planted to see whether 

 it would grow. You will surely do this, won't you, if you have not 

 already done so? It ought to be done soon because when the spring 



