You will be glad to know that all the townspeople in Pleasant Valley were delighted with the year's work in home making at the new schoolhouse. Mr. Roberts, the president of the Pleasant Valley Bank, was so pleased with the results both at school and in the homes of the valley that he gave the house that you see in the picture (Fig. 130), to be used for home-making classes by the girls, and for the boys' clubs as as well. The house was named for Mrs. Ellen H. Richards, the great and good woman of Boston, Massachusetts, whose friends are found all over the world, and who helped to develop the teaching of home economics everywhere.

Fig. 130. - The Ellen H. Richards House.

What are some of the facts about food and health that a girl may learn useful to herself and her family? This is the question at the beginning of the first chapter. Do you not think that you can all give an answer now? And would you not like to write a composition about it? Perhaps your teacher will have a gathering at the school of all the fathers and mothers. Maybe one of you can write a little play or pageant connected in some way with household arts for this closing party of the school year.

And where is Pleasant Valley? Perhaps you asked this question when you looked at the picture on one of the first pages. Pleasant Valley is your own home town; and, though it really has quite another name, it still may be Pleasant Rivers, or Pleasant Hill, or Pleasant Fields, or Pleasant Plain. Why not? In this wide country of ours there are many forms of natural beauty. Even in the dry sections where trees are grown with difficulty, there are still the far reaches of the plains and the beautiful effects of sky and cloud, sunrise and sunset. If our own town is ugly and unhealthy, it is not nature's fault, for the beauty and homelikeness and the healthfulness of any place depend upon its inhabitants. Even the simplest and plainest village or countryside has one kind of beauty if it is kept perfectly clean. At the same time, it costs but little money in many places to plant trees and shrubs and to keep the grass green.

You must see, however, that it is something more than beauty in the things about us that we have been studying together. You boys and girls in your own school are to be the men and women who will make the homes and the town the best possible places for successful and happy living. Do you realize what it means to be citizens of a great commonwealth like this of our United States? Do you understand the word "commonwealth"? It is a good, old word that means a land where all the people share their wealth and work together for the good of all. We cannot succeed in making our country a commonwealth until we begin in our home and in our home town. More and more must our country stand for democracy for ourselves and the whole world. You must bring to the problems of the future strong bodies, and clean and strong hearts and minds.