CHAPTER IV 



THE COUNTRY MOTHER AND THE CHILDREN 



GREATER attention needs to be given to the con- 

 servation of the farmer's wife. Although there are 

 many other justifications for giving more thought 

 to the care and the comfort of the country mother, 

 the single fact of her very close relation to the children 

 growing up in the home, and of her peculiar respon- 

 sibilities as center of life there, warrant us in devoting 

 a chapter to her interests. Recently, while passing 

 upon a country highway, the author met a funeral 

 procession. A little inquiry revealed a pathetic 

 situation, one that has been repeated thousands of 

 times throughout the length and breadth of this fair 

 country. The deceased was the wife of a young 

 farmer, both of them under thirty-five years of age, 

 hard working and ambitious for success, but thought- 

 less of their own health and comfort. Their farm 

 was somewhat new and unimproved, there were hun- 

 dreds of things to do other than the routine affairs 

 of home keeping and crop raising. Worst of all, 

 there was a mortgage to be lifted. After all reason- 

 able improvements were made and the mortgage 

 paid off, then, according to their plans, they were 



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