The New Education

ss B

ape unfolded itself, lined with brown and white fences, and dotted with venerable trees. A buggy, drawn by a carefully-stepping bay horse, came over the knoll ahead, framing itself naturally into the beautiful landscape. Surely, that must be Joe and Miss Belle; it was so like her, since she alway

d, glad of any excuse not to go, "where are you bound fo

ver expects to ride with you so near the school-hou

show him." Joe, who did not leave his accustomed walk at once, finally yiel

ggy. So we journeyed for half a mile. The horse, under constant urging, jogged along, while the spring rider a

re but one. Goodbye, dearies. All right, up you get," and in a moment

well, they are two of a family of six-two younger than those. Their mother died last winter, so naturally I ta

ttling herself back comfortably, chatted about her work in a

Work Through

t comfort and decency would fix up a whole neighborhood for life. They wore stockings till they dropped off. Some of the girls put on sweaters in October, wore them till Christmas, washed them, and then

ience wouldn't do, though, so I said to myself, 'Now, my dear, don't you be in any hurry. You can't do anything with the old folks, they're too proud. If you succeed at all it's got to be through

nning on

old folks were satisfied, though, and there didn't seem to be any way to go at it except through the youngsters. Day after day I saw them take raw white biscuits and sandwiches made of salt-rising white bread out o

le, what may yo

,' said I. 'Ev

No

ldn't you l

e I w

big one, too. 'Um,' says s

it?'

ain, like a baby w

piped up Annie, 'ho

chance I had b

recipe on the board, and it wasn't two days before those girls brought in as good corn muffins as I

e, ma's mad

s the matte

eaten out of house and home. The first night I made 'em pa ate eleve

ns, graham wafers, black bread, graham bread and whole-wheat bread. They sure did catch on to the idea quickly. Every Monday I put a recipe on the board. These women knew how to cook the fancy things. It was the plain, simple, w

o ask about this recipe and that. They wouldn't take any advice, you understand, not they! They knew all about cooking, so they thought, but they were mighty proud of the things their daughters did,

ery generally eaten by all of the families that could afford it. Expensive and fearfully in

e was a good cook and knew good cooking when she saw it, so I got my sister to make an angel cake, which I took around to her. I do believe it was the first light cake she had ever tasted-anyway, she was tickl

ove loaded with grease. Everybody fried meat, and when by chance they bought a roast they began by boiling all of the juice out of it before they p

to one of those women and tell her how to sift flour she would run me out quick, but when Annie comes home and makes such mu

g the Bo

when the farmer scorned newfangled ideas it was the boys that took home methods for numbering and testing each ear of corn to determine whether or not the kernels on it would sprout when they were planted. The farmer who turns a deaf e

their lessons in order that they may get at their "busy work," and linger over their "busy work" during recess and after school, because it glides so swiftly from their deft fingers. In this, as in everything else which she does, Miss Belle has a system. The child whose lessons are not done, and done up to a certain grade, is not taught new stitches or new designs. E

Work" as

e sewing has done-it has stopped gossiping. It's hard to believe, I know, but it's true. There used to be a lot of trouble in this neighborhood. People told tales, there was ill feeling, and folks quarreled a great deal of the time. It wasn't long before I found out that it was the girls who did most of the tale-bearing. No wonder, either! They weren't very busy in school, and they had nothing much to do at home except to listen and talk. Really, they hadn't any decent interest in life. Of course there was no use in saying anything,

ounty Superintendent, is having the school children plant nut trees along all the pikes-and do anything else which is not beneath their dignity. "They have no work benches," lamented Miss Bel

recently decided to transfer Miss Belle to a larger school the member from her district promptly resigned, and refused t

as mad then. He had watched Miss Belle's work grow, and knew what it had meant to

argu

yside full of ignorance, drunkenness, bitter hatreds and never-ending quarrels. Within a stone's throw of his house he had seen the transformatio

ome-making. The children were wretchedly dressed. The house was barrenness itself-no shades, no curtains, no d

essons of the school. She taught her mother to sew, while she herself made

ter leaving school to learn how to ply her needle. Until a year ago Christmas she could not sew a stitch; now her stitches are so neat as to be almost invisible. Mrs. Hawly, aroused to enthusiasm by her thirteen-year-old daughter, has come to school, learned plain and

ng Over t

he the children better. Sometimes they were pitiful in their poor shoes and thin clothes. Well, sir, we got up a Christmas entertainment, and, except for one or two, the children wore the same clothes they had been coming to school in all winter-shabby, patched and dir

n the habit of saying very much-but they went to town themselves the day before the entertainment and came back with new dresses for the girls and new clothes f

ned away. Just to show you how crowded it was-there were twenty-four babies there. I was ready for th

h her needlework, brought her mother to school-a hard woman who had a standing quarrel with seven of her neighbors at that particular time. It took a little tact, but when the right moment arrived Miss Belle suggested that she pay a visit to a sick neighbor and

dly cup of tea, chatting about Jane's dress or Willie's lessons, they have learned the art of social intercourse. Slowly the lesson has come to the

of the community, for in six years the bitterness of neighborhood gossip and controversy has been replaced by a spirit of neighborly helpfulness. Boys and girls, doing Miss Belle's "busy work," fathers and mothers learning from their children, have heaped upon Miss