In cities, in the great majority of cases, the work by which the family living is earned is done away from home, and very often no member of the family except the father has any direct part in it.  There are numerous cases, however, where the mother and even the children go out to work, and in such cases the home life may be seriously interfered with.

It would be hard to find a rural home in the United States to-day that is not near enough to a schoolhouse to enable the children to attend it, at least for an elementary education.  Unfortunately, high schools are not yet easily accessible in all rural communities (see Chapter xix).  But whether the education afforded by the rural school is of the best or not, the boy or girl on the farm gets in addition a kind of education through the varied occupations of the farm life that the city boy or girl does not get, and for which the city schools have tried in vain to find an adequate substitute.  It is remarkable how many of the successful men and women of our country were raised on farms; and they almost always bear witness to the value of the training received there.

So in matters of health, of social life and recreation, of pleasant and beautiful surroundings, the rural home must depend very largely upon itself.  The strength and happiness of the community, of our nation itself, depend largely upon the extent to which the homes perform their proper work in providing for the wants of their members.

Review what was said in Chapter ii regarding the independence of the pioneer family.

Review also what was said in Chapter I regarding the growing dependence of the family upon the community.

Gather stories regarding pioneer home life (a) in your own locality, (b) in the settlement of the West; (c) in colonial times.  Illustrate from these stories how the home provided for the wants of its members.

Show in detail how the various members of a farmer’s family take part in the business of farming.  Compare with a family in town whose living is provided for by some other business.

Make a list of the different people who come to the home of a family in town to provide for its wants (such as the grocer’s boy, the milkman, the postman, etc.).  Compare with a farmer’s home with respect to this service from outside.

LABOR SAVING IN THE HOME

We have read in an earlier chapter that “our national purpose is to transmute days of dreary work into happier lives—­for ourselves first and for all others in their time.”  This purpose cannot be fully achieved if it is not first of all achieved in the home.  One of the objections often raised to life on the farm is that it is a life of drudgery, of few conveniences and comforts, of long hours, hard work, and little recreation.  Happily this is not so true as it once was.  Labor-saving machinery, better methods of transportation and communication, better schools, have done much to improve conditions of rural home life.  But occasionally there still come statements like the following from some of the women in farm homes: