upon the
reservoir of country strength for supplies. Among those women
blacksmiths and engineers, those clerks, secretaries, librarians and
administrators, those lawyers, doctors, professors, writers, those
nurses, settlement workers, investigators and other servants of the
people in widely diverse fields, there are many whose clearness of eye
and reserve of force have been developed in the wholesome conditions of
the open country. The Country Girl has no reason to be ashamed of the
part she has borne in the non-rural world. It has been said that about
eighty per cent. of the names found in "Who's Who in America" represent
an upbringing in the rural atmosphere. The proportion of women in this
number or the special proportion of grown-up farm girls to be found
among those women cannot be stated; but the number must be large enough
to justify a belief that to spend a childhood in the open country or in
the rural village will not, in the case of women any more than in the
case of men, form an impassable barrier to eminence.

From this great rural reserve of initiating force, sane judgment, and
spiritual drive have come, in fact, some of the most valued names in
philanthropy and literature. Among them we find the leader of a great
reform, Frances Willard; the inaugurator of a world-wide work of mercy,
Clara Barton; the president of a great college, Alice E. Freeman; the
wise helper of all who suffer under unjust conditions in city life,
Jane Addams; and the writer of a book that has had a national and
world-wide influence, Harriet Beecher Stowe.

It heartens us up a bit to name over examples like these. They give us a
vista and a hope. But now and then there is a Country Girl who would
rather have, say, a better pair of stilts over the morass or a stronger
rope thrown to her across the quicksand, than a volume of "Who's Who"
tossed carelessly to her in her difficulties. For all the Country Girls
on their farms do not sing at their work. They are not idle, heaven
knows!--but their work does not invariably inspire the appreciation it
deserves.

CHAPTER II

THE HEART OF THE PROBLEM

New times demand new measures and new men;
The world advances and in time outgrows
The laws that in our fathers' day were best;
And, doubtless, after us some purer scheme
Will be shaped out by wiser men than we,
Made wiser by the steady growth of truth.

_Lowell._

CHAPTER II

THE HEART OF THE PROBLEM