THE CALL OF THE LAND 



the less difficult making, as of ordinary 

 clothing, furniture and tools, should be re- 

 quired of them. Every boy and every girl 

 as well ought to be proficient in harnessing, 

 unharnessing, saddling and unsaddling 

 horses, in the proper hitching up and driv- 

 ing of teams, in managing nervous animals. 

 A country boy should not be permitted to 

 vote till he has successfully broken a colt or 

 two. Youth of both sexes should know how 

 to swim and to row, also the elements of 

 garment mending, of cooking, of first aid 

 to the injured, and of nursing the sick. 



The great recommendation of these vari- 

 ous accomplishments is not their conveni- 

 ence, though they eminently possess that, 

 but their educative power. They are men- 

 tal, and never merely manual. They form 

 mind, morality, sense and soul, as truly as 

 book studies ; in fact, much more effectively 

 than most book studies. They are the more 

 valuable for being concrete, nearer to real 

 life, serving material ends. In and through 

 them mind is articulated with outer reality 

 in a natural way. That school practice 



234 



