FARM NEIGHBORHOODS. 181 



collect the children, in winter weather, into a generous 

 sleigh-box (I would suggest plenty of sleigh-bells and 

 warm robes), and take them to school, some other father 

 going for them at night. The dreariness and inefficiency 

 of the average country school is bad enough, without sub- 

 jecting children to the added misery of wading through 

 miles of snow, and facing biting winds in order to reach 

 its portal. And just here it may not be out of place to 

 assert that if even these four or five families would but 

 take hold of their country school, and resolve to make it 

 something worthy of the name, a great reform would take 

 place. If they would see that their school-building is 

 capable of being decently warmed and decently ventilated ; 

 that it is kept clean and wholesome, and also free from 

 the scribblmgs and scrawlings which are now its inevi- 

 table characteristic ; if they would take one brief day, 

 and set out a few shade trees and hardy shrubs, and en- 

 courage the " big scholars " to take care of them ; if they 

 would cultivate the acquaintance of the teacher ; if they 

 would visit the school, not on the last day, but every two 

 or three weeks ; and if every Saturday evening they would 

 give five or twenty minutes to a review of their children's 

 progress, the " District School" would speedily become 

 an institution fit to take in hand the plastic minds and 

 hearts of innocent children. 



Many more or less important advantages would spring 

 from such a community. Each family subscribing for one 

 or two first-class magazines and newspapers, a profitable 

 "circulating library," full of instruction and entertain- 

 ment, would be the result. Clothes, groceries, and farm- 

 supplies, could be purchased at wholesale rates, and 

 divided according to individual orders. Some happy boy, 

 with a pony and stout leather satchel, could be chosen 

 mail-carrier to and from the, perhaps, distant post-office, 

 and there would follow the luxury of a daily paper for 

 the reading-room, and letters delivered at the door. A 



