share, in fact, is
constantly growing more vital, more indispensable to the welfare of the
whole.

There is also an even more important consideration. It is this. The
daughters in the homes of to-day are the home-makers of to-morrow; if
they are estranged irrecoverably from the countryside, what is to become
of the countryside in the days that are to come? Can we entertain the
hope that the city cousins will come to the rescue? Can we reply upon
the inrush of new families from across the seas to enter our widespread
fields and valleys and support for us the burden of scientific
housekeeping, and high-minded home making, and modern education in the
spirit of American institutions?

These are some of the thoughts and some of the fears that students of
the situation entertain. The result is that a strong interest is felt to
know if possible exactly how the country girl herself does feel about
her life on the farm, whether she is dissatisfied with the conditions
that surround her, whether she suffers from a deep-seated sense of
neglect and suppression, and whether she is attentive to some distant
call of the metropolitan lure.

Many conversations and a wide and representative correspondence leave
the impression upon the author that the Country Girls of America,
however far apart in geography and condition, are alike in one
characteristic--the sincerity and soberness of their testimony. The
young woman on the American farm is thoughtful, well balanced,
dignified. She takes herself seriously, and she is developing powers
that promise well for the future of American life.

The first unthinking impulse of many country girls is their love for
their country homes. Some are optimistic enough to claim that the
farmer's family can enjoy all the advantages of village or city life
without any of the disadvantages, and with the added enjoyment of the
country itself. Now that books, pictures, and music are so easily
accessible to the farm, now that the telephone puts one into
communication with friends in city or country, and modern traveling
conveniences make it possible to secure such urban benefits as lectures,
church, lodge, post office, etc., they feel that they have all
grievances done away with. Girls in thickly-populated New York and in
wide-awake, modern Idaho give the same testimony. There is a large group
who will even exclaim as one Missouri girl did that she never had had a
single reason for wishing to leave the farm;