Fig. 365. School premises after improving.
Could you not do as much for your school grounds?
LEAFLET LXXVI.
THE GARDENS AND THE SCHOOL GROUNDS.[97]
By JOHN W. SPENCER.
My Dear Boys And Girls:
Of course you believe that Columbus discovered America, even though you were not with him. If you had been on the deck of his ship when San Salvador raised its head on the rim of the sea, you would be talking about it every day of your life. As it is, your knowledge comes to you through books, and you think you are fortunate if you are able to answer questions correctly on examination. This leads me to remark that there is much more interest in things that we have helped to "make happen" than in things that we read about and that were "made to happen" by some one else.
There is a chance for each of you boys and girls, in a way, to become a Columbus. It is true that, not counting the north and south poles, all the continents are discovered, but there is much pleasure and "fun" in discovering facts. I am now speaking from experience. I think that James Buchanan was President when I learned, in such a way that I could explain to others, the principles of a suction-pump. Some of the suggestions led me to make a squirt gun from a bit of elder stalk. Sometimes when I made a demonstration the water would fly in the faces of my audience. I started a squirt gun factory, but the teacher stopped the enterprise because it made too much litter in the school-room.
I have a suggestion that will start you on a voyage of discovery. When you have gone as far as you can I wish you would write me, telling what you have learned. Writers of agricultural books sometimes use the expression, "There is fertility in tillage." Is that true?