dren must be surrounded by these things in our schools.

A good schoolhouse in any community will raise the value of all the property in the township and is the surest indication of thrift and prosperity.

SECURE THE BEST TEACHERS.

In this matter of education good teachers are of more importance than all other things put together.

The idea that any one can teach school is erroneous. The best teachers are, in a sense, "born teachers."

Scholarship alone will not make the good teacher. There must be a love for learning, a love for children, and an earnest desire to assist others in acquiring knowledge.

The true test of the good teacher is results. The tree must be known by its fruits. But who is to be the judge? Too often the matter of selecting good teachers is left to those who are not competent to judge.

Politics, or family, or church relationship is considered of first importance, and as a result, the children and the schools are made to suffer. The

best teachers, noting this, soon leave the profes

sion.

LET CHILDREN HAVE TIME TO GO TO SCHOOL.

Parents make a great mistake by keeping their children at home to work when they should be in school. The school age does not last always. The seed must be sown in the proper season or there will be no crop. Better give the child more education and less money.

There are parents who will give a boy a $400 diamond and a four-cent education, and then wonder that the young man makes a failure in life.

There is such a thing as a whole community becoming like a great overgrown boy whose physical development is entirely out of proportion to his mental acquirements.

Noble thinking is necessary to noble living and doing.

In order to think nobly and act wisely it is necessary to know what has been thought and done in the past, what is doing at the present time, and what is anticipated by the most thoughtful people.

Assimilation is as necessary to the mind as to

the body. Character is a matter of slow growth, and character is the true purpose of all education.

FURNISH CHILDREN WITH BOOKS, PAPERS AND MAGAZINES AT HOME.

Beecher once said: "A home without books is like a room without windows. No one has a right to bring up children without surrounding them with books."

It is not too much to say that every parent should at least take the best county papers for himself, a good journal for his children, a good magazine for his wife.

It is an excellent idea also to encourage children to build up a library for themselves.

The home should be the most pleasant and happy place in the world for the children. Let them have their sports, their toys, their games, and their books. If parents would give more attention to these things there would be fewer children on the streets, running in bad company, and contracting habits that lead to crime and ruin.

Home influence has more to do with forming the character of children than all other things combined.

There is truth in the saying that "the foot that rocks the cradle rocks the world."

PARENTS MAY FURNISH THEIR CHILDREN WITH PROPER GAMES AND AMUSEMENTS.

Play is a legitimate part of child-nature. But play, like every other good thing, needs oversight and direction. At very little expense children may be furnished with ball and bat, croquet and tennis, games of history and authors, and such other amusements as are at the same time educational and refining. These things cost a little to be sure, but you can't raise even a pig or a calf without some expense and attention. The best apple in the world has been cultivated from the thorny crab. Good men and good women are not a matter of chance. What we want is not more children but children of a better brand.

PARENTS MAY TRAIN THEIR CHILDREN TO HABITS OF SAVING AND INDUSTRY.

There are children who spend enough for candy, trinkets, and chewing-gum to buy a good library or pay their way through college. It is habit that tells. "Habit forms character, and character determines destiny."

We would not have children stingy and penuri

ous, but we would have them considerate in the matter of spending money. We would also have them trained to habits of industry.

It is not well for children to have servants to wait on them and to come at their bidding. They should be taught to shine their own shoes, and to assist in doing the work of the home.

As a rule the boys and girls who do the best in their studies are the ones who are taught to work at home.

Getting an education means work. Money will not give it. Social standing will not give it. Work alone will give it.

PARENTS MAY SEND THEIR CHILDREN ΤΟ

COLLEGE.

Whether it is a good investment to send a boy or girl to college depends largely upon the boy or the girl. I know one good old farmer who mortgaged his farm in order to send his son to college. The boy turned out to be a dude and now the old man's farm is likely to be sold to pay the mortgage and the old man and his family left without a home.

I recall another instance in which a mother who owned a little place of twenty acres, worked