Just stand a stamina-filled, self-reliant country boy beside a
pale, soft, stamina-less, washed-out city youth. Is it any wonder that
the country-bred boy is nearly always the leader; that he heads the
banks, the great mercantile houses? It is this peculiar,
indescribable something; this superior stamina and mental caliber, that
makes the stuff that rises to the top in all vocations.

There is a peculiar quality of superiority which comes from dealing
with _realities_ that we do not find in the superficial city
conditions. The life-giving oxygen, breathed in great inspirations
through constant muscular effort, develops in the country boy much
greater lung power than is developed in the city youth, and his outdoor
work tends to build up a robust constitution. Plowing, hoeing, mowing,
everything he does on the farm gives him vigor and strength. His
muscles are harder, his flesh firmer, and his brain-fiber partakes of
the same superior quality. He is constantly bottling up forces,
storing up energy in his brain and muscles which later may be powerful
factors in shaping the nation's destiny or which may furnish backbone
to keep the ship of state from floundering on the rocks. This
marvelous reserve power which he stores up in the country will come out
in the successful banker, statesman, lawyer, merchant, or business man.

Self-reliance and grit are oftenest country-bred. The country boy is
constantly thrown upon his own resources; he is forced to think for
himself, and this calls out his ingenuity and makes him self-reliant
and strong. It has been found that the use of tools in our manual
training schools develops the brain, strengthens the deficient
faculties and brings out latent powers. The farm-reared boy is in the
best manual training school in the world and is constantly forced to
plan things, make things; he is always using tools. This is one of the
reasons why he usually develops better all-round judgment and a more
level head than the city boy.

It is human nature to exaggerate the value of things beyond our reach.
People save money for years in order to go to Europe to visit the great
art centers and see the famous masterpieces, when they have really
never seen the marvelous pictures painted by the Divine Artist and
spread in the landscape, in the sunset, in the glory of flowers and
plant life, right at their very doors.

What a perpetual inspiration, what marvels of beauty, what miracles of
colo