railroad or a town or a playhouse, you can leave it looking nice and
tidy. You can help chiefly by putting away your own things. You know
the old saying, "A workman is known by his chips"; and a good workman
always works in an orderly way.

When you eat apples or bananas or oranges, don't throw the skins or
peelings about, but put them in a garbage can or swill bucket or cover
them with soft dirt in the garden or stable yard; and don't throw
peanut shells, or scraps of paper and the like, about the streets or
parks. You should begin to notice all these things and talk about
them, and that will make other people begin to think about them, too.

Then you can make gardens instead of leaving bare, untidy back yards.
I think that nicely kept vegetable gardens are almost as pretty as
flower gardens. If you cannot mow the lawn, you can at least cut the
long grass on the edges; and that makes such a difference! It is
wonderful how much boys and girls can do in making and keeping a city
really beautiful.

I hope that you have plenty of room to play in now. Of course, when
you grow up, you will see that there are plenty of playgrounds and
parks for the children. We are beginning to find out that the richest
and the most beautiful city is the one whose streets are lined with
families of happy, rosy-cheeked children. So, you see, the "City
Beautiful" is the one that takes best care of her children, and she
can do this only by keeping her streets and houses perfectly clean and
seeing that the food her people get is fresh and good, and their
drinking water pure. If the city or town you live in is not like this,
be sure you do your very best to make it better.