more intimate than when some other little child is near me. Why, I have sat here by the fire, or by somebody else's fire, and have seen a little strange child come into the room when it seemed as if he must know how much alike we were, and that I must go and talk with him right away. But I never did go to him right away, or call him to me. Why? Because the little lad I used to be was at my elbow, and I remembered very well how he used to like to have people treat him. Was it the people who made an affectionate rush at him, an dcaught him up, and covered him with kisses who won his heart? No, it was the people whose hearts he thought he had won.

"So with this little strange child in the room, I would sit still and pretend to be talking with the grown-up people. But I never ceased to be conscious of him for a minute,-only I wouldn't have let him know that for the world. I wooed him instead as subtly as ever a lover wooed her sweetheart,—and when you consider it, a lover woos as if his sweetheart were a child, undervaluing what is too easily won, and overestimating what is hard to possess. ***** So I would hold out my hand to the child with all the absent-mindedness I could muster, and I would keep on talking. The little strange child would watch like a little shy rabbit, and come a little nearer, and a little nearer, and finally he would be standing with my arm around him, and all the while I would be talking to someone else, and not seeming to pay him the slightest attention. Then at length he would begin to make timid efforts to attract my notice, and finally-I would let him. After that we would be fast friends."

Through such artlessness Riley has won the love of the children who have met him, just as he has won the love of of those who have read his verse by his naturalness. He has never "written down" to the boys and girls, or made their grammar thus-and-so and nice, because it is not that way. He has simply told about things as they are, or as they were with him.

He has written about little Orphan Annie because there really was such a little child. She was a forlorn little waif named Mary Alice Smith; who came one winter day, to earn her "board-and-keep" at the Riley home, shivering in a black calico summer dress. She had an imaginative way of entertaining herself, developed through neglect, and she told the children stories, not only for the fun of scaring them but to keep them near while she put away the supper things and tidied up.

There were several real Raggedy Men, or hired men, who sang old country ballads and told stories to Jimmy Riley, and above all had hearts full of kindness for children. There was a real Granny, too, the sweetest and most faithful old Methodist. She loved children and cooked to please them, and was reputed to be the inventor of fried apples.

There was a Captain father, too, who marched off to war under "Old Glory," and there was a loving mother who sewed the prettiest Sunday-go-to-meetin' suits for Jimmy, one of them cut with a flare in

the back and decorated with glass buttons. The little boy was proud of this suit and prouder of his mother. Once she wrote him a poem to recite at school, a new poem no one had ever seen before, and he almost "bu'sted" with pride.

There was "The Old Swimmin' Hole" too, where Jimmy swam with Eck Skinner, Jim offut, George Carr, Buck Keefer, Durbin Davis and all the gang, and when he became cold and shivery and slipped out first, the ythrew mud on him from the leach-hole, and he got mad and tied knots in their shirts and hoped their mothers would find out that they had played hookey.

Then there was Tharpe's Pond where Jimmy slipped away all alone and heard the mysterious noises of the wood and whispering of the wind in the trees, like the boy in "That-air Young-un." One day when the water was warm he wade dinto it up to his waist and stood dreaming and gazing into the round blue sky folding down above him. Those children who have dreams will know how he felt as though some loving invisible power were bending down over him.

That day the poet was born in his soul. And as he grew he often recalled this experience at Tharpe's Pond, and other days when he waded into the "winey waters" there for the water was dark from running over leaves. Whenever he could recall the boy he was then, and fancy himself wading through the pond, and hear the whispering of the leaves, and feel the sun and the invisible presence of Love bending over him, he could write poetry.

October 7th is the poets birthday and the day set aside for the schools of the United States to pay tribute to their beloved poet. Let every school observe this day with appropriate exercises.

The Rural School Grounds

By Garland A. Bricker, Director Graduate Courses in Rural Education and Agriculture, Syracuse University.

T

HE grounds of the rural school, and the country church, are the faithful mirrors of the community pride in the rural districts. Thousands of rural teachers will find this pride at low ebb in the communities to which they go to teach school this fall. The grounds will be grown over with towering weeds, fences will be in dilapidated condition, buildings will be out of repair, and neglected and insanitary conditions will be in evidence on every hand.

Advertising One's Leadership.

A good place to begin the stimulation of community pride is with the external appearance of the rural school house and grounds. The external aspect of the school property is seen more often than the interior. Its improvement is a good advertisement, and will cause more favorable comment with the least effort than any other forward looking campaign the teacher may first undertake. The improvement of the rural school grounds is the logical place for the rural teacher to

begin the community program of physical as well as mental and spiritual improvement. The work indoors may be safely postponed for a month, if necessary.

The rural teacher must not expect all the needed improvements to be brought about at once. A good, big start, however, may be made, and this should be inaugurated during the first or second week of school.

The Community Pays the Cost.

The first move is always the prerogative of the leader. The teacher should begin to study and analyze the whole situation at once. Since this is a community enterprise, it is to be paid for by the board of education, which represents the community or by the community directly. The teacher must regard herself as the leader and, therefore, the director of the enterprise, under the terms of her employment. If all this is not specifically stated in the contract, it must be assumed that all the rights and conditions of community leadership in educational matters are implied. This will be a safe interpretation for most communities.

The labor, and funds, therefore, must be available, and every pupil in the school and every patron in the district is liable, as a citizen, to the leader of the community's draft of service. Under the principle of the selective draft, the pupils, being the nearest at hand, should be included in the first call. The board of education should be reminded of the necessity for some cash for the improvements, which is chargeable to one or more of the funds in the hands of the treasurer.

Clean Up First.

Do not wait for any available public money, however, before doing something. Much may be done with the available knowledge of the teacher and the strength and labor of the children. Strip the school: grounds of all weeds and take them out by the roots. The pupils can do this at recesses and during time devoted to the enterprise before and after school hours. Tools for the purpose may be borrowed and brought from the homes of the neighborhood. The work should all be systematically and thoroughly done in accordance with the plan of the teacher. Groups of pupils should be organized and each placed under a foreman, captain, or manager. Ridding the school grounds of weeds is only one phase of the general clean-up campaign. All brush, cans bottles, ashes, and rubbish of every description should be gathered and disposed of by burning, burying, or otherwise.

Draining the Schoolyard.

The next thing that needs attention on the average school yard is its drainage. Determine the slope of the yard and the place where the outlet of the main drain should be. Begin to dig a two-and-onehalf or a three-foot trench, twelve inches wide, from this point directly through the schoolyard to the lowest or largest depression. From this main ditch, dig lateral trenches at such places and distances as will be necessary to drain off rapidly all the water during the wet seasons of

the year. The main should take a tile six inches in diameter while the laterals will take three- to four-inch tiles.

Of course, the whole system of ditches should have a gentle fall of two to four inches or more for each one hundred feet. The upper ends of the latterals should be well protected by stones laid or piled over the openings, while at the exit end of the main the last three tiles should be laid in concrete and a bulkhead built around the end of the last one. All joints and intersections should be carefully made and protected against the entrance of loose dirt. This ditching work is rather heavy and should be done at the expense of the board of education, if possible. If not possible, the older boys with the aid of volunteer labor from the men of the community should be enlisted for this work.

Leveling the Yard.

The next point of attack is the leveling of the yard. All holes and low places should be filled up and bumps, and other raises leveled down. If there is extensive leveling to be done, the farmers of the neighborhood must be interested, so that teams, plows, and scrapers may be available. A seed-bed should be made on all ground bared by this work, and immediately sown to bluegrass. A good top dressing should also be made at this time.

The Schoolyard Fence.

The fences will need attention before the planting scheme has progressed very far. Board, rail, picket, and wire fences may answer the purposes of a school fence, but the best fence is made of good posts and gas pipes of one to two inches in diameter. Holes are bored through the posts ten, twenty-five, and forty-five inches above the ground through which the pipes should pass. The posts should be cut six and a half feet in length, placed two feet six inches into the ground, thus allowing them to extend to a height of four feet. This fence, with the posts and pipe painted with black paint and enamel, makes both a beautiful fence and one that will turn most live stock, the children may climb over and thru this fence without injury to themselves or the fence.

The Outbuildings.

The outbuildings should be put in good repair and properly placed, if they are now improperly located. How often do we find the fuel shed in the front yard! Move it back-at least as far back as the back end of the schoolhouse. The privies, may still be necessary nuisances in some communities. If so, set them as far back in the school yard as possible at the opposite corners, and screen doors and approaches with board walls and then with trees, shrubs, and vines. A good coat of paint is always in order for these buildings. They should be kept as tidy and clean looking as possible.

Planting the School Ground.

Long before the cold weather sets in, the teacher should have the planting scheme worked out, the ground staked off and prepared for

the disintegrating action of the winter freezing. The planting of the grounds will probably be the most difficult undertaking. However, by this time the community ought to be interested in the school improvement program of the teacher. As a preparation for this work, the teacher is advised to read some good books and bulletins on the subject of planting the school and home grounds, as, Bailey's "Garden Making.

A few preliminary suggestions for guidance ought to be approprite here.

The first consideration is that of sufficient land for school ground purposes. Every one-room rural school should have an area of at least two acres for its grounds. Probably this is all that may now be profitably used in the average community. Not an inch of this space should be wasted.

One acre should be devoted to the school yard proper. The house should be located from fifty to one hundred feet back of the front entrance. This will give abundant room for a greensward and walks, while the border plantings may serve their purpose more effectively.

The School House at the Center.

Since the school house is the most important object in the whole scheme, it should become the center of the planting design. Every decorative planting scheme is i nthe nature of an outdoor picture. The greensward makes the foreground, the background is made with large shade trees, the clouds, and the sky, while the marginal plantings along the side fences represent the frames of the picture.

The greensward in front of the building should not be cut up with flower beds, nor with straight walks. It is much better to have the walks run from the sides o fthe yard to the school house, in gentle and graceful curves.

The marginal plantings should be made of bushes, shrubs, and vines, planted in masses, projecting from the side fences out into the yard in great wave-like promontories and alternating bays, beginning rather small at the front but growing larger and taller as the rear of the yard is approached, finally merging into the background of shade trees. Flowers may be planted as borders along the walks, especially in the concave spaces, and in patches and beds inside the marginal plantings. Besides this, flowers and vines may be in especially adapted spaces, and in a flower garden in the agricultural acre back of the schoolhouse.

What Varieties to Plant.

In all decorative plantings use the usual trees, shrubs, bushes, and vines, and give special prominence to the native species. For shade trees, the maple and the elm are the best, although other kinds may be used, as the wild cherry, the oak, the beach, the hickorynut, the walnut, the sycamore, and others. Of the shrubs the following are mentioned the lilac, the syringa, the Japanese quince, the rhododendron, the elderberry, the spice bush, the hazel, the flowering dogwood, the hydrangea, the mountain laurel, and raspberry, and the roses. The