One child's father had a hired man. The boy did but little. He is eight years old and large. While visiting there, I saw his father bringing in coal. I told the boy he would find it necessary to look up work if he cared for credit. His mother visited school shortly after this; I was telling her of the idea and she said she now understood why Bennie had started to clear the table several times, and so on. We had a very happy laugh over it. The boy hunts the eggs, gets in the wood and coal, makes the mash for the chickens, and helps wash the dishes.
Another child, aged thirteen, has to do much outside work, so she feels good over getting credit for it. It is a kind of pay that makes her days pleasanter. I believe each child richly deserves the credit I have given. The results have been to make the tie between the parents and myself stronger, and I am asked to come back next year. I have seen a gladder, prouder light in the parents' eyes concerning their children. It has helped to make our school in some respects without a superior in the county, according to the county superintendent's own word. A member of the board says the children never have made such progress since the school was built, and all say these children never have made as much progress before. They are learning, as far as I can teach them, the honor of labor and the beauty of being useful, willing, and dependable. I have had a hard battle to wage here for good, thorough work and application, but the right has won.
I enclose a report that shows the kinds of work the children are in the habit of doing.
I am the teacher who spoke to you about the new oats being brought into the dryland country. It is now being introduced into another part of Montana where my homestead is. You will perhaps remember me.
Dries dishes Takes out ashes Makes fire Gets eggs Pulled up sunflower stalks Gets coal and kindling Milks (some) Feeds horses oats (15 head) Gets in coal and kindling Cleans out barn Gathers eggs Milks cows sometimes Brings in wood Drives cattle Carries ashes out Harnesses up Smashes big coal for stove Hunts eggs Turns churn Waters horses Feeds cats Dries dishes Gets chicken feed Cooks (eggs, pancakes, coffee) Feeds sitting hen Sets table Helps catch calves Fries apples and bakes them Gets clean hay for chicken nests Peels potatoes Clears table Fries potatoes Turns windmill[3] Feeds chickens Slops hogs Carries slop to hogs Kills flies Drives to town Fixed his hand cart