THE COUNTRY HOME [CHAPTER 
more about it. Children take naturally to country 
life, and not to street life, unless driven‘to it. 
The glory of country life is that every leaf and 
each twig, and the pebbles in the brook, are all ob- 
ject lessons. United States Commissioner of Edu- 
cation W. T. Harris says, “The school should be 
only a supplement of the home.” But now you 
find that your whole property — not the house 
only, but the garden and the orchard and the corn 
field, are all parts of an educational plant; and your 
children are born into it, to find out what they can 
of its wonders. Some years ago a French author 
wrote a book called “The Population of a Pear 
Tree.” It is wonderful how many tribes and na- 
tions occupy your acres. A study of these turns 
labor into pleasure, and makes country life noth- 
ing less than going to a great university. Home 
studies are all in English, and it needs no Oxford 
gown for graduation day. In this school no one 
takes a degree until he dies; for this sort of educa- 
tion never ends. 
Professor Search, in his “Ideal School,” says, 
“Every child is a born naturalist.” His eyes are, 
by nature, open to the glories of the stars, the beau- 
ty of the flowers, and the mystery of life. William 
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