THE CALL OF THE LAND 



and they have an impatience to learn which 

 is not to be paralleled save by the rarest boys 

 and girls in cities. The whole morale of 

 schools in the country may easily be made 

 loftier than is common in city schools. How 

 helpful in this direction is the freedom 

 country children have to play! It would 

 also seem easier to secure from them regular 

 attendance. Less occurs to distract their 

 attention from study. 



Country schools are animated by a charm- 

 ing spirit of democracy not found in cities, 

 preventing cliques and the partitioning of 

 school society into higher and lower. The 

 stanchest type of Americans is that country 

 and village population, whether Saxon, Cel- 

 tic, Latin or Slavic in origin, so little sub- 

 jected to the undesirable influences of our 

 newest immigration. Only, in far too many 

 localities, this sturdy American stock is fail- 

 ing to make the progress it should. Our 

 social resources need a development at once 

 more intensive and more intelligent, to sup- 

 plement the spontaneous efforts upward, 



232 



