able
show with prizes, given by the children.

Then there is the beautifying of the little village. The club may clean
it up, plant shade trees and shrubbery, freshen up the paint of the
railroad station and make its driveway attractive, take charge of the
cemetery lots which are neglected, make a common in the middle of the
town if possible, and have flowers and trees there, and, most important
of all, create a sentiment among the people which will lead to
abolishing the loafing places about town.

The club may also help the village church or, rather, churches. These
are a problem in every farming community, for there are usually too many
for the population, and no one of them is well supported. It may be that
some clubs may be successful in having a union church; but, if not that,
at least they can frown on the spirit of jealousy between the churches
and establish cooeperation. The buildings may be freed from their
mortgages, the interiors freshened, the choirs improved, the minister's
house papered, the Sunday school modernized, the women's societies
assisted. There is always plenty to be done to help a struggling country
church.

A town library may be started by the gift of one book by each family,
and club women may take turns in giving out the books one day a week
and providing entertainments to raise money to buy more.

Clubs may also help the town celebrate fete days: Arbor Day, the Fourth
of July, Harvest Home, and the birthdays of local celebrities or of
Washington and Lincoln. The schoolhouse may be used for such meetings.

The motto of every rural club should be: Cooeperation. As one kind of
work is taken up after another it will soon be seen how much women can
do if they work together for the good of all. The little club nucleus
may draw to itself the men of the community, the young people, and even
the children, and together they may build up something fine, something
of substantial value. Country life has its problems, but far more, it
has its great, glorious opportunities.

These are some of the helpful books to be bought, or borrowed from the
State Library:

"The Report of the Commission on Country Life." (Sturges and Walton.)
"Cooeperation Among Farmers," John Lee Coulter. (Sturgis and Walton.)
"The Rural Problem in the United States," Sir Horace Plunkett.
(Macmillan.) "How to Live in the Country." E. P. Powell (Outing
Publishing Co.) "A Self-Supporting Home" and "The Earth's Bounty." Kate
V.