are the precious egg-money with
the daughter. One girl confessed to owning a tree, and one a canary.
Another mentioned as her pecuniary share in the farm the fact that she
helped milk! Nearly all would agree with Dr. Shaw that having a share in
the ownership would make them more enthusiastic for the success of the
farm.
If the young woman in the farmstead would be more systematic in the use
of what money she can command, perhaps she would the sooner be trusted
with greater financial responsibility. It certainly is a motive in many
parental minds that the children--they still seem to be children in the
thoughts of some parents even when they have reached years of
discretion--are not wise enough to use money discretely. Often they are
not, but whose fault is it? If children were trained in the use of money
from childhood up, they would not be so foolish when the time comes for
putting this discipline into practise. Parents should remember that they
are sure to wish some time to have a wise, careful son to lean upon.
Then they will wish they had trained the child properly. The same is
true of the daughter. There is nothing more certain than that the
daughters in the wide countryside are being brought up in the main with
very little inkling of business. Now any girl that has gone as far in
her education as to spell and to compute fractions is quite far enough
to be taught the meaning of a deed. And not long after that she should
know the force of the little word "warranty" or "full covenant" or
"quitclaim" written before the word "deed." She should understand
something of the meaning of the fell term "mortgage"--something besides
the fact that when it is mentioned everybody is expected to weep. If
young women grew up with a more common-sense attitude toward this vital
subject, the word would be robbed of some, at least, of its terrors. In
just a few years those young women will be the distributors of the
income for a whole family; they are to be the conservators of the saving
for the fatal day of interest-paying. If they understood more of the
practical working of the matter, the saving would be approached with
less dismay.
Does it not seem reasonable to suppose that if a girl is made to see the
relation of "overhead charges" to the "cost of living," if she has been
taken into family confidence with regard to the business of the farm,
and has been made to understand the difference between the basis for a
girl's wages in
|