wn I leave directly
after dinner and get back about six. We don't go down a great deal
however. During the afternoon the mail comes bringing the daily paper
and at the end of the month the magazines. The entire family take turns
reading the paper, and the magazines are read at the first opportunity.
We sew, do little odd things, and are never at loss as to how to spend
the time. Supper is at five, so the men can milk after it. I wash dishes
or gather eggs after supper and unless something turns up to do am
free. We often pick garden things for the next day because it is cool
then."

The itinerary of the American Country Girl might thus be followed from
the energizing cool of the morning when the impact of the day's work is
so buoyantly met to the quieting cool of the evening when rest is so
joyously welcomed. So far in our investigation there has always been
some source of hope and enthusiasm to be discovered. If the margin of
unbearable drudgery seems to be reached, there is the solace of music at
evening when the whole family join in an orchestra of violin, cornet and
piano. If the days seem to grow unendurably monotonous, a pageant looms
on the horizon to capture the interest and to make life fascinating at
once. A fourteen-hour day of hard labor is broken by a recess in the
midst to write a letter and send it out to some girl friend in the great
big world that shall keep the secluded spirit in some touch with the
outside currents of life. At the stroke of eleven the daily paper comes;
at the twentieth of the month the magazine. A French or an organ lesson
is possible; and life, though burdened is kept enlivened on every side.
In such homes, work is not drudgery and the word "monotonous" has no
fatal meaning.

Perhaps it may be said that there is always something that can be found,
if it is looked for searchingly enough, to make a life of hard work
bearable. Work is good; all of us write that down on paper and believe
that we believe it. But when the principle is illustrated in a practical
form many things are required to sustain our conviction. There must be a
meaning, a hope, a definition, a goal. Each life is a system set in with
other systems. To make one of them a success, all must move on right
lines toward the chosen end. Other letters from these sensible young
women in the rural realm will perhaps make us feel this more keenly than
the foregoing.

CHAPTER V

WHAT ONE COUNTRY GIRL DID

THORN APP