wholly."

Having found the defects of our first plan of emigration, we soon
inaugurated another, which has since been followed out successfully
during nearly twenty years of constant action.

We formed little companies of emigrants, and, after thoroughly cleaning
and clothing them, put them under a competent agent, and, first
selecting a village where there was a call or opening for such a party,
we dispatched them to the place.

The farming community having been duly notified, there was usually a
dense crowd of people at the station, awaiting the arrival of the
youthful travelers. The sight of the little company of the children of
misfortune always touched the hearts of a population naturally generous.
They were soon billeted around among the citizens, and the following day
a public meeting was called in the church or town-hall, and a committee
appointed of leading citizens. The agent then addressed the assembly,
stating the benevolent objects of the Society, and something of the
history of the children. The sight of their worn faces was a most
pathetic enforcement of his arguments. People who were childless came
forward to adopt children; others, who had not intended to take any into
their families, were induced to apply for them; and many who really
wanted the children's labor pressed forward to obtain it.

In every American community, especially in a Western one, there are many
spare places at the table of life. There is no harassing "struggle for
existence." They have enough for themselves and the stranger too. Not,
perhaps, thinking of it before, yet, the orphan being placed in their
presence without friends or home, they gladly welcome and train him. The
committee decide on the applications. Sometimes there is almost a case
for Solomon before them. Two eager mothers without children claim some
little waif thus cast on the strand before them. Sometimes the family
which has taken in a fine lad for the night feels that it cannot do
without him, and yet the committee prefer a better home for him. And so
hours of discussion and selection pass. Those who are able, pay the
fares of the children, or otherwise make some gift to the Society until
at length the business of charity is finished, and a little band of
young wayfarers and homeless rovers in the world find themselves in
comfortable and kind homes, with all the boundless advantages and
opportunities of the Western farmer's life about them.