SIXTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VIII. 889 



A sense of ownership gives one a feeling of care-talving and guardian- 

 ship and a desire to add to the hoard we already have. So it will be re- 

 garding this composite purse, if all are privileged to draw out, each will 

 or should have a desire to help in the replenishing, that like the widow's 

 cruse of oil the supply may never fail. 



HOME LIFE ON THE FARM. 



BY :MR.S. W. J. STEWART, GRIMES, IOWA, BEFORE FOLK COUNTY FARMERS' IXSTI- 



TUTE. 



(Bi/ a vote of tJie institute, this paper uas selected for puNication in 

 the Year Book.) 



"Some time since you have spent your evenings on the farm, isn't it?" 

 was the comment the first individual who picked up the program of this 

 meeting remarked in my presence. And so it is; but any of us can theo- 

 rize a little. Yet, it is the practical we want to get at in these meetings. 



While much might be said about the possibilities of increased knowl- 

 edge and culture through systematic courses of evening study, whole col- 

 lege training courses on agricultural courses or otherwise, or the corre- 

 spondence plan, etc, we will leave that to some Chautauqua circle gradu- 

 ate, or one who has put theory into accomplishment. But, there is one 

 point which I will try to make, and it is equally applicable to nome and 

 village life, — or, home life anywhere, — and that is the cultivation of the 

 possibilities of conversation, cheery bright home talk, an exchange of 

 ideas each has gathered from the daj'S occupation, and observation and 

 reading. 



The ability to observe, remember and express thought away to 

 mutually cheer and interest each other means mutual improvemen, com- 

 bined wih mutual pleasure, crowds out gloom and endears the home re- 

 lations. How many of us envy the ability of the good story teller, one 

 who can relate an ancedote with charm and sparkle, and not spoil it just 

 when the point should come in. 



I think the directing of the childs' ability from the start along this 

 line should be carefully attended to, before the years of self conscious- 

 ness, and consequent ernbarasment arrive. 



I sometimes think if there were more conversation exercises and less 

 "speaking pieces" in the school plan, results might be better, and the 

 development of the child more natural and graceful. 



Many of us find it much easier to take a pen and write our thoughts 

 than to speak orally. Is not this due, in part at least, to our one-sided 

 early training. 



In tills point of sharing our thoughts conversationally with each 

 other we too gain m^uch. How much more really any thought is our own 

 after we have put it into language. "We read the daily papers, a maga- 

 zine article, a good book, or hear a brilliant speaker. We have received 

 ideas, but have perhaps read or listened without definite purpose, and 

 the thoughts slip away from us. In this, as in all else, we gain as we 

 give. Share the best in what we have gathered with each other. We gain 



