The attendance at some schools is small and the pupils are young. Small efforts from them are relatively great when compared with what is done by schools with ample facilities. We know a teacher who began her first teaching in the fall of 1902. The pupils were eight in number and most of them were small. The school was in the country. The interior of the building was shabby. The teacher was courageous and resolute. With her small handful of not over-competent pupils, she had school "exercises" and the children sold tickets. By this means enough paper was bought to cover the walls, and the teacher and the children put the paper on. Then they made other sales, for which they received as commission three pictures creditably framed. They were hung on the walls of the school-house. By this time, the tide of civic improvement in that community began to turn towards the improving of the school building and grounds. We are eagerly awaiting reports to know what was done on Arbor Day. Under such conditions, it was no small thing that the teacher and children accomplished.
Fig. 366. Making a school-garden in Massachusetts.
LEAFLET LXXVII.
SOMETHING FOR YOUNG FARMERS.[98]
By JOHN W. SPENCER.
My Dear Nephews and Nieces:
I wish to make farmers of you all. I will try to tell you how to have farms all your own—farms on which you can plant seeds and see the plants grow. Once a little girl in Buffalo, who is one of my Junior Naturalists, asked me whether I would call at her home and see the harvest from seeds she planted on one of her farms the spring before. The principal of the school went with me, for he knew all about the little girl's success, and seemed proud of what she had accomplished. What do you think it was she had raised? It was something that filled her lap and was good to eat. It was a fine pumpkin. It weighed twenty-two pounds. I wish I could have a photograph of her holding the pumpkin, her face glowing with pride and satisfaction.
You are surely able to do as much as this little girl did. Perhaps you would prefer some other crop to pumpkins, in which case you have many kinds of seeds from which to choose.