THE COUNTRY STORE.
Perhaps you live in the country. If you do, you can tell us something about the store near by.
The store may be the center of the little world in which you live. There your father goes to buy the sugar, flour and many other things which you need. There, in most country villages, the post-office is located.
Can you tell why the store was put where it is? Look around carefully and perhaps you can discover the reason. If you learn to understand the little world about your home it will help to make interest ing the study of the large world which lies beyond.
We see first that the store is often upon a corner where two roads cross each other. It was placed here so that it could be reached easily by the people living near by.
You would not look for a store where there were no people. People live mostly in valleys where the climate is pleasant and the soil is rich.
If many people come to live in the country near the store there will be much buying and selling. All of the business cannot be carried on in one store and a little town may grow up.
There will be a post-office in one building, a dry-goods store in another, and a hotel in still another. There will have to be a blacksmith shop, and a school house and perhaps a church. Many people will come to sell what they have raised, and • get other things in exchange.
Thus we see that a little store well situated for trade may be the beginning of a town.
There are other places in which a town may be built. A mill is placed near a waterfall in the river.
People come to the mill to have their grain made into flour. A post-office is started there and finally a school. If the water power is good the town may at last grow to be a city.
A town may also grow up where there is a mine. Such a town does not depend upon fertile land or mills to bring people. The mine may be a coal mine. Coal is needed for many purposes and people will go almost anywhere to get it.
You may also find a store upon a bay by the ocean. The bay offers protection to the fishermen.
They bring their fish to the store to be shipped away and get their supplies in return.
If the water of the bay is deep large ships will come in to unload and the business carried on will make a town.
You will always find that there is a reason for the store or town being placed where it is. This is either because of fertile lands near by or because of water power, or mining, or easy communication with the country around, or of trade with other parts of the world.