demand.

"Before any daughter has left our home for one of her own, she has been
taught all I know of cleanliness about a house, cookery, sewing,
tending the sick, bathing and dressing the new born. She has to bake
bread, pie, cake, and cook any meat or vegetable we have. She has had
her bolt of muslin to make as she chose for her bedding, and linen for
her underclothing. The quilts she pieced and the blankets she wove
have been hers. All of them have been as well provided for as we could
afford. They can knit, darn, patch, tuck, hem, and embroider, set a
hen and plant a garden. I go on a vacation and leave each of them to
keep house for her father a month, before she enters a home of her own.
They are strong, healthy girls; I hope all of them are making a good
showing at being useful women, and I know they are happy, so far at
least."

"Wonderful!" said Mr. Pryor.

"Father takes the boys in hand and they must graduate in a straight
furrow, an even fence, planting and tending crops, trimming and
grafting trees, caring for stock, and handling plane, auger and chisel.
Each one must select his wood, cure, fashion, and fit his own ax with a
handle, grind and swing it properly, as well as cradle, scythe and
sickle. They must be able to select good seed grain, boil sap, and
cure meat. They must know animals, their diseases and treatment, and
when they have mastered all he can teach them, and done each thing
properly, they may go for their term at college, and make their choice
of a profession. As yet I'm sorry to say but one of them has come back
to the land."

"You mean Laddie?"

"Yes."

"He has decided to be a farmer?"

"He is determined to make the soil yield his living."

"I am sorry--sorry indeed to hear it," said Mr. Pryor. "He has brain
and education to make a brilliant figure at law or statesmanship; he
would do well in trade."

"What makes you think he would not do well on land?"

"Wasted!" cried Mr. Pryor. "He would be wasted!"

"Hold a bit!" said mother, her face flushing as it did when she was
very provoked. "My husband is, and always has been, on land. He is
far from being wasted. He is a power in this community. He has sons
in cities in law and in trade. Not one of them has the friends, and
the influence on his time, that his father has. Any day he says the
word, he can stand in legislative halls, and take any part he chooses
in politics. He prefers his home and family, and the