e open country, but the village forms the nucleus of
social intercourse and there are most of the institutions of the
community.

The most primitive among these institutions is the country store. It
has economic, social, and educational functions. It supplies goods
that cannot be produced in the community, it serves as a mercantile
exchange for local produce. It helps to remove the necessity of home
manufacture of many articles. On occasion it may include an agency for
insurance or real estate; it is frequently the village post-office; it
contains the public bulletin-board; often the proprietor undertakes to
perform the banking function to the extent of cashing checks. Socially
the store serves a useful purpose, for it is the centre to which all
the inhabitants come, and from which radiate lines of communication
all over the neighborhood. It is a clearing-house for news and gossip,
and takes the place of a local press. It was formerly, and to some
extent is still, the social club of the men of the community during
the long winter evenings. As such it performed in the past an
educational function. Boxes, firkins, bales of goods, superannuated
chairs, and the end of a counter constituted the sittings, and men of
all ages occupied them, as they listened to harangues and joined in
the discussions. The group constituted the forum of democracy, where
politics were frequently on debate, where public opinion was formed,
where conservatism and progressivism fought their battles before they
tested conclusions at the ballot-box, where science and religion
entered the lists, where local interests were threshed out in the
absence of more general excitement and crops and agricultural methods
filled in the pauses. In recent years the store circle has
degenerated. The better class of habitual members has organized its
lodges or found satisfaction in the grange, while the hangers-on at
the store, barber-shop, or other loafing-place indulge in small talk
on matters of no real concern.

123. =The Sewing Circle.=--What the country store has done for the men
as a means of communication and stimulus, the ladies' aid society or
church sewing circle has done for the women. Its opportunities are
less frequent, but it provides an outlet for ideas and opinions that
without it cannot easily find expression. At the same time it provides
active occupation for a good cause, which is more than can be said of
the men's forum. When it adds to its exer