big load that he could not support it with his hands so he has a harness 

 that goes over his shoulder that sustains the weight. With that he carries 

 rice, watermelons and all sorts of produce trundling the stuff along for 

 miles and miles to market. I never knew that before, maybe you did. 

 If I had time I could tell you any number of fascinating things that 1 

 picked up in just a little study of other countries. Isn't it fun to know 

 how folks keep house in other lands, how men earn a living, how they 

 till the soil, how folks go to school in other lands? One thing above all 

 'thers I have wanted for my children's education is money for travel. I 

 would like to see other folks, see what they do, what they eat and what 

 they wear. But I am afraid I have been making my wishbone my back- 

 bone! I can get fascinating books with pictures for a small sum, or from 

 the library for nothing, and think how much we could learn if we took a 

 trip around the world in books! That would be a worth while way to 

 spend evenings! 



Then there is another sort of books, the third kind, the books of real 

 literature, books read not for direction, not for facts, but to bring out 

 thinking higher; books that make us understand folks' motives, books of 

 poetry, of drama, and novels. I wonder if you like to read plays. I never 

 could get as interested in plays as in novels. I used to wonder why, and 1 

 found out a little while ago. The folks in plays never explain, they just 

 act and talk, and the reader has to have brains enough to figure out why 

 they act as they do. While in the novel, the author takes the reader into 

 his confidence and explains that so and so is going to do this because of this 

 and the other; he tells the reader all about it so he can understand. Since 

 I learned that, I have spunked up a bit, and I promise myself to read a play 

 a year and to understand it. 



Have you ever tried reading books aloud at home? We have never done 

 a great deal of that in our house, not as much as we should; but during the 

 last few years we have read four or five and oh, how we did enjoy those 

 books! Did you ever read Huck Finn aloud? That is a great book to en- 

 joy with home folks. Have you read Jane Austin's "Pride and Prejudice"? 

 I don't know anything that is more fun to read out loud. "Treasure Island" 

 by Stevenson, is fine, too! We read so many short stories nowadays. Some- 

 body said to me this evening at the hotel, "I just get so sick reading short 

 stories." Short stories are all right a glass of soda water is all right, too, 

 for a bit of refreshment. But you would not like to live on soda water as a 

 steady diet. But the continual reading of short stories takes away our power 

 of concentration gives us mental indigestion. Every once in a while we 

 should read a long book straight through. It doesn't make any difference 

 whether it takes all winter or winter and summer, the time is not important 

 if you enjoy doing it. See if you have gumption and stick-to-itiveness enough 

 to read one book all the way through. It is good training and it is fun, too. 



Why should our leisure be important? Why should we plan out the 

 things we want to do with our spare time? Do you realize that the use of 

 leisure is one big thing that makes the difference between man and the lower 

 creatures? Animals can eat and sleep and hunt a place to keep warm, but 

 animals can't play together as folks can. 



One of the greatest thoughts that has ever come into the mind of man 

 is the thought of growth of evolution. This thing that you and I call mind, 

 brain, as grown from way back at the beginning of time. You and I learn, 

 when we study evolution, that your life and mine are not little sections set 

 down here, and there, just like a patchwork quilt, with no relation one to 

 the other. No, our lives are not like that. Our lives are a growth. You 

 and 1 are a part of all that has gone before. We are a part and a product; 

 and the things that we think and the things that we do, are the product of 

 what folks have been thinking and doing way back since prehistoric times. 

 I hope you will all read that very wonderful book, Mr. Wells' "Outline of 

 History-" You will give yourself a treat. It is an imposing sounding thing 

 with 1400 pages, but, oh, such fascinating reading! I never read a novel 

 that was half so gripping and moving. Read it sometime and read it loud. 

 Don't be discouraged if you can't read it all at once. Read a chapter a 



