E(lu('<ifhn(d OpportumtD on the Farm 4") 



days when I was crowded into a 16 x 20 school- 

 house, with two score other bonnding, mischiev- 

 ous urchins, all seated on the hard side of un- 

 backed, long-legged slab benches, which left our 

 bare legs, for which the flies had a liking, to 

 dangle between heaven and earth. True, all 

 this has now been improved, and good and ap- 

 propriate seats are usually provided, but this 

 only ameliorates the conditions ; it does not cure 

 them. If the parents who have lost something 

 of their first love for their children, or who are 

 too lazy or careless or ignorant to teach them, 

 will go to these patent- seated school -rooms and 

 sit for five mortal hours on one of these hard, 

 wooden, uncushioned seats, they will no longer 

 place their tender children in these modernized 

 stocks. You who no longer have the hot blood 

 and restless nervous energy of youth make long 

 faces and complain bitterly from your well 

 cushioned pew, if the over- earnest pastor pro- 

 longs his sermon ten minutes beyond the custo- 

 mary time. It may be said that many, neverthe- 

 less, secured a primary education under these 

 unfavorable conditions. But I did not ; I re- 

 ceived it at my mother's knee in the old 

 kitchen, some of it before daylight. About all I 

 got in that old school-house were kicks and cuffs 

 from boys who were older and stronger than I, 

 and round shoulders from sitting through many 



