The American Country Girl

The wisest find life a difficult thing to classify; therefore young girls must not be blamed if they do not critically analyze the causes and the effects that appear in their pe...

A vision had certainly visited the soul of a certain fifteen-year-old Country Girl of New York State who claimed that the girls of the present day have a progressive spirit, and...

The first of the three stories in this chapter represents the work of a young woman who spends more than half of her time with her mother and an aunt upon an ancestral home in a...

In 1777 the famous ladies of Litchfield molded delicately the leaden statue of King George into bullets that their husbands might have the wherewithal to fight King George's men...

The mother of to-day is a bridge between two eras. Her mother had a wooden spoon and a skillet; her daughter has a dynamo. As for herself, she hardly knows which way to turn--wh...

It is depressing, it is terrible, that a concourse of country girls will stand up before The Fathers and declare that while they love the country, and prefer to remain there all...

There is one thing that may not be mentioned by any Country Girls even in their dearest confidences, but that we may for a surety know: it is that every one of them looks forwar...

It may be interesting to some of the Country Girls who read this book to see not only some pictures here and there from the life history of girls but also to look over several m...

This may be considered a brief for the "old maid" of olden time; or rather for the quality that she stands for in our dream and story life. We have not given this so-called "old...

In a Memoir that belongs to the classic traditions of our country, that of David Brainerd the Missionary, we read that he besought the Lord that he might not be too much pleased...

Now that we realize our puritanic mistake about the God-given powers for artistic enjoyment, we are taking to our heart the ravishing delight that the quick and vivid sense of b...

"Isolation" is a word that the Country Girl does not very much use, but still she feels the meaning of the word. This note sounds in the unusually frank answer of one who did no...

The Country Girl of to-day may look forward to a life in which she shall serve in a double capacity. She is to be a farm-woman and she is to be also a wife-mother. The farm woma...

It is possible that a good share of training for her profession will be brought right to the door of the Country Girl's future household laboratory. This she may look forward to...

The Young Women's Christian Association will frequently be found working in harmony with a sister organization called "The Camp Fire Girls," which is also a national association...

The countryside does not sufficiently appreciate the value of its asset in the changing seasons. The alternation of winter and summer gives the admirable opportunity for the har...

The clarion of the country life movement has by this time been blown with such loudness and insistence that no hearing ear in our land can have escaped its announcement. The dis...

The ultimate use of health is to make us happy, and the deepest hurt of sickness is that it destroys our power of enjoyment. Moreover, since our happiness when we are at our hum...

Mrs. Gene Stratton Porter in her book, _At the Foot of the Rainbow_, makes a certain Scotch character say that he does not care for better talking than the "tongues in the trees...

The experiences related in the last chapters have been purposely laid before the reader with little comment. They make their own impression. They may help to dispel an apprehens...

breathing, clothing, food and eating, elimination of waste, cleanliness, amount of sleep, rest, and prevention of illness Willingness to make sacrifices in order to gain and to...

If the Country Girl of the future takes her life in her hands and asks for a household laboratory such as has been described, she must make sure also that she will be able to wo...

The Country Girl has this advantage--the business of the farm and the home are so closely connected that the work she has to do can be carried on without separating her from her...

The development of musical taste and the power to enjoy the works of the great composers is closely akin to the ability to appreciate the sister art of the drama. The art that h...

The reason why the American people care so much for the ideals that are presented to us in the Country Life Movement is that there is something very deep-seated and permanent wi...

There is a doctrine held by some theorists that a people really needs now and then to be plunged into the struggle and stress of actual war in order to become inured to hardship...

The kitchen should be a combination of laboratory, machine shop and studio. The work done there is just as complex as that! There are an almost infinite number of different thin...

It would indeed be fortunate if every young woman who has been raised in rural surroundings could go to some educational institution where there is a department of home economic...

The young women who read this book will surely believe that no mere curiosity inspires the question at the head of this chapter, but a fully fixed idea that much depends on the...

Various societies are now trying to supply one of the greatest needs of the girls in country life: namely, good times. The young life is doing the most natural thing possible wh...

"Efficiency" is now the watchword in all endeavors, and every man worker and every woman worker is being put under training to secure the greatest amount of it. The factory is s...

KING [_enters sorrowfully_]--Oh! 'tis but to-day that my daughter had a letter saying that her lover had died of grief. She, too, has died of sorrow, and I shall have the same f...

KNIGHT [_looking around joyously_]--The birds shall sing at our wedding. Fragrant wild flowers shall be thy wedding bouquet. Oh! let us scorn not Nature, for she and Love are gr...

_O Woman, what is the thing you do, and what is the thing you cry?_ _Is your house not warm and enclosed from harm, that you thrust the curtain by?_ _And have we not toiled to b...

The woman that can in the midst of her rigid daily duties fall on her knees and thank God for the dim, black forests which are the eternal fans of nature, for the rain that appe...

I am aware As I go commonly sweeping the stair, Doing my part of the everyday care-- Human and simple my lot and my share-- I am aware of a marvelous thing: Voices that murmur a...

The day is done; the clock is striking eight; The children now are snug and safe abed; Still on the pillow lies each little head, Tired out, altho' they begged to sit up late. I...

O little room, wherein my days go by Each like to each, yet each one set apart For special duties ... nearest to my heart Art thou of all the house ... in thee I try New issues...

The scrubbing's done; my kitchen stands arrayed In shining tins, and order reigns supreme. And on the table, like a fairy dream, A row of pies and cakes, all freshly made And fu...

Upon the shelf the clock ticks merrily; The kettle sings his song in drowsy mood; Within the stove crackles the fragrant wood; The coffee-mill grinds out a cheerful lay. Surely...

A country life is sweet! In moderate cold and heat, To walk in the air how pleasant and fair! In every field of wheat, The fairest of flowers adorning the bowers And every meado...

Are you sheltered, curled up and content by the world's warm fire, Then I say that your soul is in danger! The sons of the Light, they are down with God in the mire, God in the...

KING [_rushes in excitedly_]--Where is my daughter? My daughter! [OMAR _appears in response to bell._] Omar, scour the kingdom for that wretched Sir Constantine. He no doubt kno...

It is especially important that whatever will prepare country children for life on the farm, and whatever will brighten home life in the country and make it richer and more attr...

We men of earth have here the stuff Of Paradise--we have enough! We need no other thing to build The stairs into the Unfulfilled-- No other ivory for the doors-- No other marble...

The fruits of modern inventive skill and enterprise have enriched country life and have banished forever the extreme isolation which used to vex the farm household of the past....

Let the mighty and great Roll in splendor and state! I envy them not, I declare it. I eat my own lamb, My own chicken and ham, I shear my own sheep and I wear it.

What man would live coffined with brick and stone, Imprisoned from the influences of air And cramped with selfish landmarks everywhere, When all before him stretches, furrowless...

"To preserve as things above all price The old domestic morals of the land, Her simple manners and her stable worth That dignified and cheered a low estate, ... the character of...

Here in America, for every man touched with nobility, for every man touched with the spirit of our institutions, social service is the high law of duty, and every American unive...

Well then, I now do plainly see This busy world and I shall ne'er agree; The very honey of all earthly joy Does, of all meats, the soonest cloy; And they, methinks, deserve my p...

New times demand new measures and new men; The world advances and in time outgrows The laws that in our fathers' day were best; And, doubtless, after us some purer scheme Will b...

I cannot bear to think what life would be With high hope shrunk to endurance; stunted aims Like broken lances ground to eating knives; And low achievement doomed from day to day...

O little bulb, uncouth Rugged, and rusty brown, Have you some dew of youth? Have you a crimson crown? Plant me and see What I shall be-- God's fine surprise Before your eyes!