(lovingly dedicated to all 4-H girls and their leaders through the years)I am glad I live in the country. I love its beauty and its spirit. I rejoice in the things I can do as a country girl for my home and my neighborhood.
I believe I can share in the beauty around me – in the fragrance of the orchards in the spring, in the bending wheat at harvest time, in the morning song of birds and in the glow of sunset on the far horizon. I want to express this beauty in my own life so naturally and happily as the wild rose blooms by the road side.
I believe I can have a part in the courageous spirit of the country. This spirit has entered into the brook in our pasture. The stones placed in its way call forth its strength and add to its strength a song. It dwells in the tender plants as they burst the seed cases that imprison them and push through the dark earth to the light. It sounds in the nesting notes of the meadowlark. With this courageous spirit, I, too, can face the hard things of life with gladness.
I believe there is much I can do in my home. Through studying the best way to do my every day work I can find joy in common tasks as well done. Through loving comradeship I can help bring into my home the happiness and peace that are always near in God’s out-of-door world. Through such a home I can help make real to all who pass that way, the highest ideals of country life.
I believe the love and loyalty I have for my country home should reach out in service to that larger home that we call our neighborhood. I would join with the people who live there in true friendliness. I would, wholeheartedly, give my best to further all that is being done for a better community. I would have all that I think and say and do help to unite country people near and far in that Kingdom of Love for, neighbors, which the Master came to establish, the Master who knew and cared for country ways and country folks.
By: Jessie Field Shambaugh, from Page County, Iowa.
