MISS ABERNATHY'S SECOND YEAR'S WORK AT EAGLE ROCK.

        Some efforts were made last year to improve the Eagle Rock Academy and grounds, but that was only a beginning and called for more. The most pressing need that confronted us this year was water, as our earlier plans in this direction failed to mature. So we sent a petition to the board of education and the board agreed to pay for the well if our patrons would haul the rocks with which to wall it. This was an easy matter and that well has been a blessing since October.

        When we planted our trees and flowers no place was found at which to stop until we had covered the entire school ground. This left no play-ground and our useful boys felt that they had been displaced to make way for the purely ornamental. As a consequence the flowers stood to them in the character of interlopers--a condition to be remedied speedily. I called upon the owner of the adjoining grounds and asked that the boys be allowed the use of a certain part if they would clean it off. He consented to this and the boys chopped down bushes, dragged off brush, and burned out broom-sedge, until they had a beautiful ground, and all was again serene and calm.

        Early in the fall a trustee promised to give me fertilizers for my roses if I would get it carried to the school ground. One Saturday shortly after this, several little boys met near the school-house to play ball. This was as it should be. I formed them into a bucket brigade, armed them with hoes and marched them to the academy, where they labored cheerfully until every bush had received attention. Then they returned to their game, which had lost none of its zest because they had stopped long enough to help beautify their little world.

        About this time a traveling nurseryman stopped a night with us. He heard us speak of the improvements made and others contemplated, whereupon he, too, wanted to lend a hand; he gave to us a nice magnolia, which was received with a gratitude unfeigned.

        But I was anxious to have a carpet of green spread under the trees and roses. So I went to see two of the trustees in regard to it. One promised to send his plows to break up the yard and also to give enough rye to sow the ground; the other said he would send his disc harrow to break the clods and cover the seed. The work was therefore done promptly without much trouble to either.

        In the meantime something was being done in the interior of the house. Each room was provided with a neat waste-paper box. Our merchant sent a large calendar--just the very thing for a school-room--and also a case of maps which our congressman had sent to him. A Raleigh friend sent a railroad map of the state. As this was on rather thin paper it was carefully lined with a heavier paper pasted on and the whole was tacked to the wall with plenty of brass-headed tacks. A lady in the neighborhood gave two handsome art calendars of four

sheets each, which were separated and trimmed and artistically grouped on the wall, making a brilliant dash of color. Collier's Weekly sent one of our boys a picture of Dan Patch. This was fastened up and delighted our little boys, and possibly, too, some of larger growth. The large girls undertook to raise money to buy several pictures, but we knew that we could not spend much on these, as there were several other things to buy. So we decided to invest in the 10-cent gray cardboard mat picture. We have put up seventeen of these with brass fasteners. By using some discrimination in the selection of subjects and shapes of mats and by exercising our best taste in grouping them, the effect is surprisingly good.

        The doors and windows opening from the rostrum had never been painted and looked terribly dingy. There was no need for them to continue so. I bought two cans of paint and a little brush and soon had them painted a soft pearl gray. It is well laid on, too. I also bought a wash-pan, a thing not exactly ornamental, perhaps, though it has its place with small boys.

        But during all this time the great desire of my heart was for books. Misses Womble and Royster of Raleigh had given one book each, and with these for a nucleus we began to devise ways to add others. A minister promised one, a teacher one, and a citizen of Raleigh sent ten or twelve volumes. Although the number of libraries due to Wake county had been taken, still I sent in an application. After some weeks a statement that orders had been issued for supplementary libraries, and lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest. I marked the day with a white stone.

        To get the ten dollars from the community which would entitle us to the thirty-dollar library was not easy, but finally the money was in hand and now the books are here. I should like to tell just how we have used these books and how the non-readers are induced to become readers, but that is another story. But books alone are not sufficient. Pupils need to read papers and magazines, and thus to keep themselves posted on current events. So the reading-room followed. Our miller gave the timber for a nice broad shelf and dressed it, and one of my large boys nailed it up in the music-room. Then the pupils were asked to bring their papers. One brought one and another another, and the postmaster promised to give every day whatever he could legitimately give away. Thus by a little neighborhood co-operation we have the Youth's Companion, the Biblical Recorder, The Progressive Farmer, Charity and Children, The Orphans' Friend, The News and Observer, The Morning Post, and others. The old copies are removed every morning and fresh copies put in their places. Our book-case was placed in this room, and the box of magazines sent by the Raleigh Circle of Colonial Dames, a bench and some chairs were added, our pretty piano wheeled into place, and now the reading-room looks very inviting. Really, the array of fresh papers would do credit to a more pretentious school than ours. The

pupils derive much pleasure and profit from the reading-room, and by contributing to it themselves have come to understand what a beautiful thing is the spirit of helpfulness.

        It happened that a large tree planted last year died, and instead of removing it we thought it better to nail on some cross-pieces, thereby converting it into a trellis over which to train a vine. A friend planted a wisteria which, we think, will cover the trellis in a year or two.

        A flower garden has been made in the angle formed by one room jutting out from another, and this was at first enclosed by scrap wire taken from bales of hay. But this wire broke badly and afforded but poor protection. I spoke of this to the gentleman with whom I board and he volunteered to give enough timber to put a substantial fence around it. The little boys dug the post-holes and the larger boys made a good strong fence and hung a gate. This will protect our best flowers during vacation.

        After the library, the need which appealed to me most strongly was the painting of the exterior of the house. The building is an old one, remodeled, having had many additions made to the original. Five sides showed from the front. The old paint was white, the blinds green, the facings yellow, while two walls and a great tower rose up in front unpainted, weatherbeaten and just as nature made them. That house--a patch of white, a patch of green, a patch of yellow, three great gray blots--every time I went up the front walk I said, with Bob Burdette:

        "Until each staring, frenzied wall

        Looks like a crazy-quilt gone mad."

        It was a nightmare past enduring. I bought some paint, got instructions about mixing it, borrowed a ladder, and my carpenter boy and I laid it on. I covered the lower part and he covered the higher part, and between us we covered about 800 square feet of weatherboarding with two coats. We did not reach the back of the building, but we treated all that shows from the front and we made a vast improvement. The door was hung four years ago with no glass in it, although the glass was bought and two persons appointed to put it in. But the door hung there four years without glass because the men had never happened to meet there when they had the glass with them. I ran around until I found where the glass was and then put it in myself.

        What has been done has cost very, very little money, but a visitor who was here at commencement said that she could scarcely believe it to be the same old place she had left two years ago.

        The green yard, the growing young trees, the budding roses and the white house makes a pleasing picture. Inside has kept up with outside. Maps and pictures ornament the walls. For a center-piece we have Washington and Lafayette, with Old Glory draped above them.

A GREENE COUNTY SCHOOL.

BY MISS SUSIE KIRKPATRICK.

        Our school opened in November in the lower room of Mr. H. A. Hooker's pack-house, this room having been used for a number of years as a school-room, as there is no public school building in the district. The pack-house is situated in a beautiful oak grove, but in the rear of the building the undergrowth has quite taken possession. The yard was carpeted with autumn leaves and grass and here and there ungainly stumps were in evidence.

        After getting acquainted with my pupils and their parents and arranging my classes, I began wondering how we could secure a library, for have one we must. Some one suggested a basket party. Five of the largest girls in school, two or three young ladies in the neighborhood and I took baskets with lunch for two, to be sold to the highest bidder. From them we realized $15.

        In the meantime the president of the county branch of the Woman's Betterment Association wrote to me about the scholarship offered for improvement in school-houses and grounds. As soon as the children heard of it they very enthusiastically joined in the improvement movement. Before many weeks had passed the leaves and grass had been removed and the boys had uprooted as many as twenty stumps.

        We then began to improve the interior of the building. We had a new stove-pipe put up and twelve window-panes put in to replace those which had been broken. A blackboard was given to us by the county superintendent. We wanted pictures for our walls, so we gave an entertainment, at which we raised a small amount with which we purchased a map of North Carolina and pictures of John Alden and Priscilla, the Stag at Bay, Longfellow and his Home, and three pictures of fruits and flowers, the first two having pretty frames. Hearing that the Youth's Companion would give pictures to the schools interested in improvements, we wrote and received pictures of Washington, Lafayette, the Signing of the Declaration of Independence and the surrender at Yorktown. I advanced the money with which to buy a portrait of General Lee, which, together with the pictures received from the Youth's Companion, I had framed.

        Our desks were home-made, very rough and uncomfortable, and so high that the smallest children had to stand while writing. We turned our attention towards getting new ones. From Washington's birthday celebration we realized ten dollars. I then offered a copy of Longfellow's poems to the child raising the largest amount for the purchase of desks. They went to work at once in the community and at the end of two weeks had collected fifteen dollars. The county

board of education then gave thirty more, so that we have now nine patent desks and every child attending that school next year will have a comfortable seat.

        In the spring we returned to the yard, laid out flower-beds and planted sweet-peas, pansies, cannas, violets, chrysanthemums and other flowers. We also have hyacinth bulbs to set out in the fall.

        A gentleman in the community interested in the work sent a man who worked four days trimming trees and clearing the ground of grape-vines and broom-sedge. Then he laid off a fine base-ball diamond for the boys.

        A Betterment Association was then organized. Besides all the pupils, we have every mother and sister co-operating with us in this work. We hope by another year to have at least a few honorary members.

        The girls took great interest in keeping the room tidy, washed the windows occasionally and kept flowers in the library most of the time. A number of United States flags and one Confederate flag were given to me. On appropriate days we decorate with them.

        Altogether we have made about one hundred dollars worth of improvements inside the school-room. One child remarked: "Our room will look like a parlor when our desks are put up." I shall try to impress upon them that it is to be their home and that they must keep it as such.

SNOW HILL SCHOOL, GREENE COUNTY.

BY MISS MATTIE L. ALBRITTON.

        Last August when Miss Edith Royster organized the Greene county branch of the Woman's Botterment Association, of which I was made secretary, I realized what an opportunity we had for the improvement of our surroundings.

        In presenting the result of our work I would first give a short sketch of the building that was in use in Snow Hill previous to the organization of our association. This building was a disgrace, not only to the town, but to the county and state as well. It had been built some fifty or sixty years ago and very little had been done since to improve it. Indeed, the hand of time had brought the house to a most dreary and cheerless condition. The walls were broken, the window-sashes so worn that putting in a new glass was a mere expenditure of time and money without real benefit. The blackboards were almost too bad for use. The desks had been carved and abused by "Young Americans" for several generations. The cracks in the floor, the sagging doors, the yawning weatherboards, entirely relieved us from the study of ventilation. Indeed, my pen fails to portray the desolate and bare appearances in and around the school-room. We had a library, though, and many little brave hands and hearts to help us to better the condition of things.

        We accordingly began the work. Our principal, Mr. J. E. Debnam, drew the plans, and through his untiring energy and with the aid of our friends and the good old county of Greene, we have now an elegant and commodious building. In this building are three very large, well ventilated and well lighted recitation-rooms. Two of the rooms are separated by folding doors, enabling us to throw them into one when needed for public entertainments. We also have in this new building a cloak-room and a cozy little library finished in oiled wood, the capacity of which is much greater than its contents, though we hope to do a great deal to fill that later. Yet we have somewhere between one hundred and fifty and two hundred dollars worth of well selected books.

        The interior of the recitation-room is beautifully finished with oiled wood, which, with the white walls, is very pleasing. The black-boards are good in quality and sufficient in quantity. There are a number of pictures of our statesmen and other strong men of our state and nation on the walls. I have the primary work, and the pictures of birds which I have in colors and in black and white are especially enjoyed by the little tots. Nor do they fail to enjoy and appreciate the other pictures which have been hung in their room.

        The pupils held a festival last year with our help and with the receipts, together with a small sum they made later, bought an organ,

SNOW HILL, GREENE COUNTY (OLD).

SNOW HILL, GREENE COUNTY (NEW).

thus enabling us to have good music and songs every morning along with our devotional exercises. Our school bought and uses an unabridged dictionary, and our principal presented to the school a book-rest for its accommodation, so that even the little tots can handle Father Webster.

        In addition to the number of pictures that have been bought our school has purchased a large number of library books and one dozen and a half United States flags. I have had presented to me for my room a North Carolina state flag and to the school a flag of the Confederate States. These were the gifts of the president of our Greene county branch of the Woman's Association for the Betterment of Public School Houses in North Carolina.

        We have framed and hanging in a conspicuous place a copy of General Lee's farewell address to his army. Under the picture of Washington and his cabinet we have two swords crossed under a shield, making quite an effective picture, with two flags of the stars and stripes above.

        Sixty yards of red, white and blue bunting with which to decorate on gala days are now the property of the school.

        Indeed, with our new patent desks, pictures, flags, etc., our rooms are very cozy and inviting. The books, organ, pictures and decorations of all kinds with few exceptions were purchased by the children with money made by them at entertainments and festivals. The school children enjoy the work and have an "association" of their very own, with officers of their own choosing. Many of their mothers have given us their names and help and four gentlemen gave us the one dollar each necessary for them to join.

        The money that was made at an entertainment during our commencement in May was used in painting the new school-house, which, with its body of sandstone gray with white trimmings and terra-cotta blinds, presents a neat and attractive exterior.

        The belfry, open and imposing, contains a relic of the eighteenth century, an old bell one hundred and eleven years old. It is the very bell that was used to call our grandfathers and fathers to school at the same old site. Its tone is as clear to-day as when it left the foundry in old England. A tall flag-staff caps this belfry, from which Old Glory, when the days are bright and breezy, floats over the descendants of those who bade it wave for their country and her freedom. The day on which we raised our flag, all giving it a loyal salute, was a gala-day indeed. The children enjoy the sight of the flag in a greater measure, I think, because they bought it themselves.

        A closed fence has been built between us and the objectionable view of the back-yard of a negro cabin, the entire cost of which was paid out of the children's fund. The wood-pile had long (dis) graced the front yard. That has been removed and the yard carefully cleaned. A well of cool clear water is now on the yard, the water

for the school having been supplied heretofore from wells of private parties some distance from the school.

        The old building, so long an eye-sore, has been removed and the new building, with a charming background of tender green, situated in a pretty, clean plot of grass, free from all débris, is, indeed, a picture that fills our hearts with pleasure in our work well done, and stimulates our minds and hearts for greater things in the future.

A LOG SCHOOL-HOUSE.

A Dream of the Future Based on Present Conditions.

BY MRS. CHARLES PRICE.*

        *This paper was read at the annual meeting of the Woman's Association for the Betterment of Public School Houses in North Carolina, May 5, 1903.

        I wish not to try for effect, but simply to tell what happened at our little Ellis school-house. Ellis is not only the name of a distinguished governor--our war governor--Vance's immediate predecessor, but the very place of his birth and rearing. He lies buried in the quaint old churchyard in my town.

        My attention was directed to this particular school, because I passed it so often in going to and coming from a recently acquired farm. This poor little school-house was so forlorn, so badly built, so rudely finished and altogether so different from my idea of a country school, that I should have passed and repassed it without interest or comment, but for meeting the two sisters--the dear little faithful teachers--Minnie and Della Swicegood. They were in the toils of house-cleaning for the school that would open the next week. I stopped to see whether I could help the good work. I was most hospitably received, and my suggestions for the comfort of the school were gratefully observed.

        New window-panes were put in, and Perry pictures, to make little spots of interest on the bare walls, were added. My next visit was when the school was in full swing, with a house jammed and packed like sardines, with sixty-two unusually promising boys and girls. They sat on uncomfortable benches, with the rudest of home-made desks. The room was so full there was no set-aside place for the teacher. She sat here, there and anywhere, so patient and uncomplaining, so astonished and pleased at my interest, that I was rebuked. The average age of the children in that room was fourteen years, in the primary room, ten. The attendance--here I pause to ask you to consider the remarkable fact--the average attendance was sixty out of a possible sixty-four. Many walked two miles to begin work at 8:30 o'clock in the morning. They were never late, and oh! such obedient, good children, so zealously trying to learn. Four families in the neighborhood did not patronize the school, for reasons we hope to overcome.

        There are two occasions that stand out: One at Christmas in the Baptist church, just across the big road. The neighborhood was in such a turmoil. Men, fathers and grandfathers could not get down to work for some days afterward. They had never had a Christmas

tree, had indeed never seen one. One man said: "Why, it will be full of presents. I heard from the committee that the presents would cost fifteen cents apiece! I reckon they will be mighty nice." The children were wild with joy.

        The other occasion was Washington's birthday. The little teachers were very busy, and so little older than the oldest pupils that I had to wait for a word before I could be certain which was the teacher. Many ready responses made me know the children were familiar with our immortal hero. I said: "What was the best thing about him?" A freckle-faced, bright-eyed boy answered: "He could not be got to lie."

        The teacher's method was to offer prizes. The children preferred books to anything else. The school term was four months, but the money held out for five months. I had never heard why, unless it was like the oil and meal, by divine blessing. We did not know it then, and we concluded to make it an additional month by popular subscription. The teachers had no trouble in getting up the desired sum. I headed the list, and my example was readily followed. All gave willingly. I shall stop here to pay a merited tribute to the woman who trained these teachers; whose work has been faithful and efficient; who has equipped scores of girls in all our surrounding country to be better, stronger women. Miss Eaton of Mocksville is her name. Our next term will begin early in November, so that we can have nearly, if not quite, six months.

        The practical results of my efforts have been:

        1st. The pupils were stimulated and the teachers very much encouraged by my visits.

        2d. The patrons were moved to more interest in the school, and became keenly alive to the school interest when presented to them.

        3d. The prizes stimulated many to increased efforts.

        In view of the results obtained in this instance, I would respectfully urge that each school be visited by one woman appointed by the county superintendent. This duty need not be onerous, as due attention could be paid to appointees being convenient to the school-house.

        I have determined to build a model log school-house. I shall use my first money in employing a first-rate architect to give me a plan. It will look like the pretty houses we have all admired in Asheville, the shapely pine logs cemented with glowing red. I shall make a canvass of the entire neighborhood, and I know my logs will be cheerfully given. I want a goodly number, too, for I shall have several rooms in the house.

        It is indeed a poor subject that is not fertile enough for a dream. Heaven help it to mean more. I see my log school-house in multiplying numbers, with commodious rooms, convenient water, to keep little hands tidy, for "a clean body goes a long way towards making a clean soul." I see modern games for approved outdoor exercise, for "the fun of it," not always the exercise that comes from hard labor. I see

a library with the best books that men and women write, placed in a room big enough to offer inducements for a lecture, with a platform that might serve as a stage for plays; and if our Baptist brothers across the way are willing, a country dance. Call it any name, so it fulfills its object of "amusement for country children."

        I see a higher and nobler entertainment; we will call it an industrial department. We will teach boys and girls that there is no nobler industry than farming. We will teach by actual experience that wheat to pay must not succeed wheat, but clover or peas. We will show them that corn must produce more than one ear to the stalk, that it takes less work and more thought to make farming pay better than any other vocation; and we shall do it as an object-lesson. Land is cheap everywhere in North Carolina.

        We will teach the girls chemistry by showing them how to make good bread, teaching them to use soda sparingly, or not at all, and always with sour buttermilk or cream of tartar. We will teach them the properties of yeast, so that light-bread will delight the eye and the taste, and incidentally restore the health of the family. We will teach them to sew and fashion plain clothes and make them fit.

        "Is this a dream? Then let me dream again." It must be a reality. It must be an immediate reality. I think the house, with the logs given, could be built for three or four hundred dollars, or even less, for I mean to utilize my men and boys, and the girls, to make them love what they help to create. If there be left a dollar we will pass it on to the next district for their log school-house.

        I see a day, and God grant it may not be far distant, when we can dot our noble state, beginning with Rowan county, with these model log school-houses. Then the opprobrium of "the log cabin and the pine tree" will be done away with, and women will count it an honor to be of this "log-house work." When we realize what such things mean, our boys and girls will love the country school; they will be contented with the country neighborhoods where such "log school-houses," which break the weary monotony, are maintained; they will love the land that calls for them to stay and yearns in uncultivated loneliness for them to return.

        Do you know that the statistics in New York, and I think here in North Carolina, tell that by far the greatest number of women patients in the insane asylums are farming people? Cause: Loneliness--laconic reason for so sorrowful an evil. I would try, as a help or relief, my log school-house and its accessories. The architect will tell us just how many trees to plant. Dr. Winston, that indomitable educator, just how to begin our little experiment farm, and he will furnish us a teacher to tell us how to make everything else plain. Dr. McIver can and will clear up the way to begin it all, for it will only take his tongue to tell the story. The pockets will be open to him, for his eloquence is convincing. Perhaps the echo will reach Tulane, and the success, named Edwin A. Alderman, may give us

his approval, which will sound through America, as all of his words do, and our success can make a pathway.

        Oh, I have counted the cost! My library can be begun by editions of Eliot and Scott, Dickens and Thackeray, Cooper, Encyclopedia Britannica, all for $12. I saw the advertisement. There is the beginning of my $400, but if every other help fails, I shall turn to Booker Washington and reverse the situation and ask him to help me attain this object, and that will settle the question, and, perhaps, the mighty problem the world talks about.

        In conclusion, whether we give time or talent, much or little money, ourselves, or give influence: "Who gives himself with his alms feeds three--himself, his hungering neighbor and Me."