Welsh Journals

the known world. I am fully acquainted with the situation of the European nations, and I believe that the Americans are better off than any of them. For if a man lives in the interior parts of this country, and wants land and is too poor to purchase where he is, he can go to some new country, such as Georgia, Kentucky, etc., is. You can't imagine how popular Georgia is of late years-emigrants from the northern States comes here annually, and I wish there would come ten families for one, room a plenty. I am in hopes to secure large tracts of land in a year or two on the Western Waters, which I shall reserve for my children. Peach trees comes to perfection here in about three years, out of which we distill brandy. Fruit is so plenty in Virginia that they fatten hogs with them; it will soon be the case in Georgia." And then, in the midst of his high praise of America, of his pride in his own success, and his faith in the future of his adopted country, he proves himself a Welshman at heart. A chance phrase in his brother's letter knocks at the doors of memory. Sudden as thunder in a cloudless sky, a surge of longing engulfs him. »He returns, in imagination, to his native land. It is the 'hiraeth' which every Celt in exile knows. Hugh's letter goes on :­ You said that Brother Evan was at your house when you wrote your letter, hence I naturally concluded that he carried the letter and put it in the post office at Carnarvon, for Carnar- von was printed on it. I wonder if I was at Car- narvon whether I could find the way to your Books Children Like Best. AN ENQUIRY. By E. T. Owen and J. Lloyd Jones. WHEN we set out to find what books children like to read,. we embark upon an interest- ing voyage of discovery. There is a sense in which the child mind of each succeeding generation is an uncharted sea. The most serious limitation we suffer from in our exploration is that we cannot look at things through the child's eyes. We have an uneasy feeling that something vi tal eludes our closest search In our enquiry we wish to obtain evidence of the kind of books that appeal to boys at different ages, and the reasons for that appeal. We desire also to learn to what extent pictures have an In- terest for them, and how far they influence the preference for certain books. Our object in making this enquiry is to seek in- formation to guide us in drawing up a scheme of reading with a world-wide interest for children. We do not want to include books that have no appeal, and we shall endeavour to grade the books to suit the capacity of children of various ages. house? Bear with me a little in my folly. I would go to Pont Saint, Pont Newydd, Pont \Vyllad, Rhwyallon, frwd Scafarnog, where Uncle J no Jones served his apprenticeship. I would not tail to call at LIwyn y Gwalch, Garth y Glo, and Wm. ab Bevan, the Prydith, who married our cousin. Then I would call at Pentra Llandwrog, -but alas, what am I talking about! Perhaps the people who used to reside at those places are gone to some other parts of the world, perhaps to eternity! But to proceed on my journey 1 would go to Bettws and Glyn llufon, leaving Tyddyn ab Engan and Tyddyn Dafydd on the left, and Bodfan on the right. What a fine prospect I should have of the ocean on my right and the mountains on my left! This would be an un- common sight to me, as it is now 12 years since I saw a mountain or the ocean. Jamaica is as mountainous as Wales;-but to proceed on my journey I would go to Clynnog, leaving Lliar iach on the left. Perhaps I would go to Llan- haiarn Village, but perhaps I am out of my latitude, for there is Ivle to cross, a huge moun- tain where I went with Jack Pugh and his father and a large company to hunt the fox among the rocks. You are tired of my foolishness I dare say. But how often have I lain on my bed, and many a time in the woods thought about you, trying to recollect your faces. Many a time have I in my mind crossed the raging ocean, arrived at Carnarvon, saw you all rejoicing to see me, stay- ing with you a while, then returning to America to my own family, and they as glad to receive me as you were. I have let my thoughts loose in this manner till my head acked." In order to obtain sufficient information to form as accurate conclusions as we can, it will be necessary to make a much wider survey than that of the two schools whose results are presented here. We are but approaching the subject. But we feel from our experience that the enquiry is well worth making, and that we ought to enlist the co-operation of as many schools as possible to undertake the same kind of survey. From the pooling of our experience something really useful should emerge. This is the method adopted where the enquiry was made relating to boys between 7 and 11 years of age. In the school 127 boys were interviewed by the head teacher. The questions put to the boys were these:- (a) What books do you prefer to read, books about people or books about places? Why? (b) What books do you prefer to read, books about animals or books about things? Why? It was found necessary to divide the subjects for choice in this way, because submitting the four kinds of books for preference at once led to con- fusion. Some very illuminating replies were received.