18 THE CORN LADY 



Wheaton, Iowa, October 4, 1910 



DEAR DADDY : Well, the first month has 

 gone and I surely do think that teaching 

 country school is the best work in the world. 

 The country is beautiful these early autumn 

 days. The corn is tall and straight, with the 

 ears hanging down as though they were quite 

 weary of their own weight. I wish you were 

 here. Shut your eyes and think of hills and 

 hills and valleys covered with rows of corn; 

 with grain and alfalfa fields between 'and 

 here and there pretty white houses and 

 red barns. Daddy, doesn't the sight do your 

 heart good? 



I have spent most of the time, when I 

 could get my school work finished, in getting 

 acquainted with the people. I have been to 

 see them all and they were glad to have me 

 come. There is one family that is very poor. 

 They came here from the mountains of the 

 South about a year ago. The father is not 

 very well and he doesn't understand farming 

 at all. It is a large family, the oldest an in- 



