Farm Boys and GirlsMcKeever, William A. (William Arch)
Science
Farm Boys and Girls
McKeever, William A. (William Arch)
Boys; Farm life; Girls
Even though the means available will not allow for more than the
humblest sort of cottage, there should be definite thought of providing
therein some room or niche or corner to be considered as the private
property of the children. In a three-room dwelling on the Kansas prairie
in which lives a happy family of five, and about which thrifty young
shade trees and orchards are growing, there may be seen a children's
room that would surprise and inspire any ordinary observer. In a little
attic room facing the east and reached by a mere step-ladder
arrangement, may be found the "den," which is the private place of the
three children. A small window opens out to the east and a small
improvised dormer window about twelve by twenty inches admits light and
air from the south. There is no plastering or other expensive covering
upon the sloping roof walls, but the artistic mother has provided dainty
white muslin for concealing the rough places, and with the help of the
children she has decorated the little room in a manner that would
attract the very elect. None of this has required a money cost, but it
has all been done beautifully at the expense of thought and good sense
and artistic taste, prompted by rare consideration for the needs of the
boys and girls.
[Illustration: PLATE VI.
FIG. 6.--A commodious farmhouse in Canada, equipped throughout with a
complete water system. Many farmers waste enough trying to build a house
without a modern plan to pay for this extra convenience.]
The two little girls and their brother, ranging in age from five to ten
years, spend many a happy hour in their attic chamber. The heat from the
room below comes through a small aperture and warms the little place in
winter time, while the breeze passes through the little windows in
summer, tempering the room satisfactorily excepting upon extremely hot
days. Upon the walls are arranged beautiful post cards, larger pictures
gathered from magazines and other sources, and small though beautiful
home decorations of every conceivable sort. The little seven-year-old
boy has a small assortment of curios collected from the hills and
streams, while the girls have a small display of their childish
needlework, their dolls, and some of their best school drawings. How
suggestive and how helpful it would be if this little den could be
displayed before the eyes of all the humble cottagers throughout the
rural districts!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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