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the Children's Depaitment, which always used to be found in 

 this part of the hall, and was such an interesting part of 

 the Marshfield Fair ? " and the answer, perhaps, would be, 

 " O, the children have become tired of it, and seem to have 

 lost nearly all their interest, and so few articles are brought in 

 that it isn't thought worth while to keep up the Children's 

 Department any longer." Shouldn't we feel sorry to say that, 

 and wouldn't you feel just a little bit ashamed to have it 

 said of you? 



Some one asked if the children hadn't been sufficiently 

 encouraged. Well, we hardly know what more could be done. 

 We heartily .believe in praising children when they deserve it, 

 and we have always been quite lavish of our words of praise 

 and encouragement, — at least, we thought we had, referring 

 always, of course, to defects, in a general way, so that they 

 might be avoided in the next trial, and surely the Society does 

 better by the children in the way of gratuities than by any 

 others. 



Though at our last Fair there was a decrease in the number 

 of articles, yet we think that never before has the work 

 been of better quality, and as many of the articles were 

 quite sizeable, the space was well covered, and no doubt 

 the deficiency was not very noticeable to the observer. 



Several nice pieces of work were done by the older girls, with 

 some of whom this is the last year in the Children's Depart- 

 ment. We are sorry to lose them, but glad that they leave us 

 so well fitted for work elsewhere. 



Since our last Fair we read an article in some paper about 

 a children's fair, or exhibition of juvenile industry, held 

 annually in a little village not far from the city of New York. 

 The work displayed was both useful and ornamental, but 

 mostly useful, as plain sewing, patching, darning, etc. It may 

 be that here is a new idea for our girls; perhaps you have 

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