228 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



Rural life has become over-serious and over-sordid. It must 

 perceive that life and love and happiness, not wealth, are the 

 objects of living. There must be injected into it the spirit of 

 play. The isolation of the farm home must be broken by estab- 

 lishing some place where farm people will frequently meet to- 

 gether, and the colder and freer months must be more largely 

 utilized for education, recreation, and the public good. The 

 hours of work must be reduced, and the half holiday must -be 

 brought in. The country must discover again in its daily life 

 the adventure and romance and beauty that have passed. 



All too often in these years of earnest struggle for success, 

 the children have been only a by-product of the farm. The 

 farmer has loved and cared for them, but the rearing and 

 training of a worthy family has not been one of his objects in 

 life. He has cared for his corn and potatoes, but his children 

 have "just growed." Play' he has often confounded either with 

 idleness or exercise, deeming it only a useless waste of energy, 

 better devoted to pulling weeds or washing dishes. Yet play- 

 fulness is almost synonymous with childhood; it is the deepest 

 expression of the child soul, and nature's instrument for fash- 

 ioning him to the human plan. Play is needed by the country 

 child no less than by the city child ; but, with decreasing families 

 and enlarging farms, it is becoming increasingly difficult. The 

 equipment that is necessary must be introduced into the home 

 and the yard. Play must be organized at the country school, as 

 it is coming to be at the city school. The social center, the Boy 

 Scouts, and the Camp Fire Girls must bring back the adventure 

 and romance that the country has lost. The rural school must 

 train the child to perceive and love the beauty of the open coun- 

 try, to hear the thousand voices in which Nature speaks to her 

 true worshipers. 



