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... of "The Giant ... and the Fairy Skill" (Milton
Bradley Co., Springfield,Mass., an effective story to
read to children from five to ten) the fairy teaches the
eager, clumsy giant to so direct his bhoisteerous
impulse to serve that after days of patient effort he is
welcomed as a helper instead of being merely tolerated
by those generous enough to overlook his carelessness. A
ten-year-old who was crocheting a gift for her
grandmother remarked, "Even if it isn't done well
Grandmother will like it because it's my work." How much
more wholesome for the little girl it would have been if
someone had insisted on the charm of offering a neatly
made gift, that Grandmother's pleasure need not be
marred by apologies. Organizations are too often
hindered by the volunteer worker. The communuty life of
the future will be enriched by every child who has
learned to take pleasure in careful finished work.

"We require from buildings as from men," writes Ruskin
in "Stones of Venice" two kinds of goodness; first the
doing of their practical duty well, then that they be
graceful and pleasing in doing it." This is one secret
of acceptable service, that the doer shall find joy in
his work rather than seek all his pleasure as a thing
apart. This we can emphasize to our little citizens,
showing them as consistently as possible that we do find
joy in dutie.

Our children will receive their firmest foundation in
the matter of their responsibility toward the community
from the stress which is laid by happy example and
persistent teaching on the safeguarding of the community
welfare by the right sort of homes. Read them Mrs. Kate
Douglas Wiggen's charming story, "Mother Carey's
Chickens" (Dunlap Grosset Company, New York.) Theirs was
a home whose light could not by any possibility be hid.
Mother Carey gives the keynote in saying to her children
when they move into the village of Beulah, "We must make
it a home; as beautiful and complete as we can afford.
One real home always makes others. I am sure of that! We
cannot be happy, or prosperous, or useful, or
successful, unless we can contrive to make the Yellow
House a home. The river is our river; the village is our
village; the people are our neighbors; Beulah belongs to
us and we belong to Beulah."

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