The outstanding feature of the work of the Vermont Children's Aid Society this past year is the increasing amount of child need that has been brought to our attention. Two years ago we gave assistance or advice to 543 children; last year the number increased to 996. A year ago we were caring for 25 children as wards of the Society; we now have 76 children in our custody. This increase in the work, great as it is, is not keeping pace with the increased demands. Last year at this time there were 44 untouched calls for help, waiting until we should have time to meet them ; 95 such calls are now unanswered. With the growth of the work there was an insistent need for a temporary shelter where children could be placed at a moment's notice, no matter how neglected might be their physical condition. The advisability of establishing a receiving home was discussed, but after careful consideration the Board decided to continue, at least for the present, its policy of placing children in private homes. It was hoped that if the amount of time and money that would be needed to establish, equip and operate a receiving home could be available to find, investigate, board and supervise children placed in family homes, the results would be a more natural mode of living for the children and a quicker assimilation of handicapped waifs into the normal life of the community. It would have been impossible, however, to develop the right kind of homes had it not been for the generosity of Mrs. G. H. Eggleston, one of our directors, who offered to provide the salary of a placing‐out agent for a year. The duties of this agent would be to find and investigate both boarding and free homes, and to supervise children placed in such homes.

In February, Miss Sybil H. Pease, of Burlington, was appointed placing‐out agent. The results are demonstrating the wisdom of the directors' policy. A year ago, when a home was needed for temporary care, everything else had to be dropped and a search made for someone who could be persuaded to board the child. Now more requests for children to board come in than we can easily investigate. This does not mean that we have an abundance of good boarding homes waiting for children, but it does mean that gradually this form of service for children is taking root. We are now using twenty boarding homes, most of them near Burlington or Bellows Falls, where they can be easily supervised.

It is impossible to overestimate the patience and devotion of the good women who, for a small weekly allowance, take forlorn, untrained little children and by real mothering not only teach them proper ways of living, but give them the love they crave. Some of these “boarding mothers," as we term them, can face pediculosis and even scabies without alarm, and nonchalantly send word, as one of them lately did, “Mary has bugs. Please send some more larkspur." To see a transformed little being at the end of a few months of such care is to have a profound faith in modern miracles and in the kindness of the human heart. We have come to believe that if we look hard enough and far enough we shall find some kind heart for every child, no matter how handicapped or unattractive the unfortunate child may be. Some of you may remember Mabel, the baby with the crooked spine, who had to lie for months in a steel shell. Mabel is now walking and running like other children, and the good people who cared for her so devotedly during her invalidism as a memorial to their own baby, are now planning to adopt her. After all, our whole job simmers down to one thing, putting each child in touch with the right person. Character is not machine made. It is only by the devotion of some life that a child enters into his inheritance. Free foster care, with or without expectation of adoption, is sought for children, physically and mentally sound, who have no fit home of their own and no prospect of ever having a proper home with their own kindred. Where possible, brothers and sisters are placed in the same family or near each other. We now have 28 of our wards in free homes, and 11 others are in free homes with their relatives, under our supervision.

“Have you ever felt happy, excited and frightened, all at once?“ writes Mrs. White as she prepared for the arrival of five‐year‐old, black‐eyed, rougish Emily, who has since transformed that happy though heretofore incomplete home. Sometimes it means waiting a long time until just the right child can be found, but when the right child and the right father and mother have found each other one can almost hear the “joy bells ring in heaven's streets." “I have found the companionship for which I have been longing," writes a happy foster mother. The child is not always as articulate in expressing his satisfaction, though occasionally an outburst comes to us like the following from a ten‐year‐old:

“Dear Miss Peas:

How are you I hope that you are well. I am having the best time of my life. I just think the postal card you sent me was lovely. I am having a very very good time here and do not want to go away anywhere. If you right to Miss Abbott tell her Alice says she likes her home and does not want to go away. Mrs. Black is very good to me.

Loving thoughts go with you.

ALICE."

This is the happy side of the work. Less fortunate are the poor children whose mental ability is so limited that we cannot offer them for free foster home care. What shall be done with the homeless or neglected child who is not defective enough to be admitted to the State School for Feeble‐Minded at Brandon, but who is not up to par, and who probably will never be able to compete on an equal footing with his fellows? At present Vermont is unequipped to meet this problem. The State Board of Charities and Probation is for mentally normal children. Brandon is for the definitely feeble‐minded, and the few vacancies there are justly given to the socially dangerous adolescent. Sarah is an attractive little girl of ten, pretty and responsive, but when she was given a mental test over a year ago the result showed that she was definitely feeble‐minded. She has been in a boarding home where she received the care a normal child should have. A second test, a year later, shows a very gratifying result. There has been a marked mental gain, and although she is not yet the kind of child we can recommend for placement in a free home, we feel that it is due her to have every opportunity for normal development.

The Children's Aid Society has adopted the policy of caring for a certain number of children of Sarah's type who are not placeable, and yet who are not proper or, at least, not urgent cases for Brandon. This policy was adopted because of the great need of some plan for such children, and although the nine children of this type we are now caring for are but a drop in the bucket, we hope the type of care we can give may demonstrate by its results the need of a state policy for such unfortunate children. We are glad to say that several overseers of the poor are cooperating with us in the care of these children by defraying a part or the whole of the expenses of the children's board.

All of the wards of the Society are given thorough physical examinations and children over three years of age are given mental tests. Dr. C. K. Johnson, our medical advisor, has given unsparingly of his services, and physicians throughout the State have been very generous. We especially wish to mention the cooperation of the Mary Fletcher Hospital and its staff.

Mental examinations are given by the agents of the Society. We have also received the invaluable cooperation of the New England Home for Little Wanderers in Boston, where ten of our children have been given a more thorough study than we were prepared to give here. There the children were kept under observation in their beautifully equipped Receiving Home, a personality study was made by experts, and a recommendation made for the future care of each child so studied. This service was rendered us free of cost and we hereby take occasion to make public expression of our indebtedness and gratitude to that organization. We are also indebted to Dr. William Healy, of the Judge Baker Foundation in Boston, for a personality study of two difficult adolescent girls, and to the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children for the care of these girls during their stay in Boston.

Although we consider ourselves fortunate to be able to avail ourselves of the generosity of child‐caring organizations in Massachusetts, we look forward to a time when our children may find within the borders of Vermont resources equal to the best. We have recently secured the services of Prof. John T. Metcalf, Ph. D., associate professor of psychology at the University of Vermont, to act as consulting psychologist. Professor Metcalf's experience in army testing and as psychological examiner in the Department of Public Welfare of Illinois, makes him a valuable addition to our staff. If funds were available for this purpose, we should like to establish a personality clinic where each child's heredity, past experiences, physical and mental condition and special traits could be analyzed and in the light of the result, a careful plan made for his future.

Such a study as is outlined above would be of special value for our adolescent children. The adolescent girl is our greatest problem. At present we are caring for ten girls from twelve to seventeen years of age. Parents know the anxieties which attend this period even with children carefully reared from infancy. No wonder that it is a time of peril for girls hampered by poor heredity, lack of proper training and often a personal experience with degradation and vice. Nothing but the utmost patience and wisdom can bring them safely through this period and here we feel more than ever the necessity of putting each child into intimate touch with the right person. We are indebted to the Y. W. C. A. for a happy, wholesome outing at Camp Worth While for five of our girls last summer. Contributions from Women's Clubs, the Stannard Relief Corps and King's Daughters made this possible.

We have worked with 36 unmarried mothers and their babies last year. Our first consideration is to secure proper physical care for the baby. Unless there is some physical reason why this should not be done, we urge the mother to keep her child with her at least during the nursing period. This course not only secures for the child the best chance for a proper physical development, but by appealing to the natural maternal instincts, is the best possible safeguard against future trouble.

Thanks to the cooperation of physicians, hospitals and public health nurses, as well as to the care of our boarding mothers, we have never lost a child by death and have had only two cases of serious illness. We have received from the Fletcher D. Proctor Fund for Destitute Children $533.91 for physical and surgical care of children. It has been a source of satisfaction to note the improvement of the children in our care. Careful physical examinations and re‐examinations bring to light incipient dangers which are easily corrected before conditions become alarming. We are grateful to the dentists for their cooperation which has made possible dental prophylaxis and treatment at a moderate cost for all our wards.

We cannot emphasize too strongly the fact that the bulk of our work is with children in their own families, in an effort to so remedy maladjustments that the children may never have to be deprived of their own homes. Such work is difficult and requires the most careful investigation and patient handling. Moreover, it is so intimate and confidential in its nature that it is not possible to give the public any fair conception of this part of our work. The fact that we have worked this year in the interest of 996 children and have removed only sixty from their own homes speaks for itself. We have not yet succeeded in making satisfactory arrangements for all of the 996, but it is certainly a conservative statement to say that the condition of a majority of these children has been materially improved by our efforts. We are still working in the interest of many of them who are not yet satisfactorily adjusted. Sometimes the children need to be removed from their own homes only temporarily, during which time we not only give the children proper care, but help the family to get onto its feet again so that the children may be returned. We have recently restored to their mother four children taken from miserable surroundings. The mother, who was sick and discouraged, is now taking up the task afresh, renewed in body and spirit, while the children return to her very much improved.

The value of personal service versus relief is well illustrated in the case of Pascal, an eight‐year old Cuban boy. When Pascal's mother died, two years ago, his father sent him to an uncle in Vermont to be educated in American schools. For two years this child was a virtual slave in his uncle's family, where he tended the babies and helped with the housework from early morning till late at night. Twice he tried to run away, but was returned to his uncle. The case was finally reported and the agent found him pale, emaciated, with protruding abdomen like the starving children of Europe, and with bare legs scarred where he had been kicked and beaten. He told the agent that he never had any breakfast, and often had no dinner. He was committed to the Children's Aid Society by court and placed in a good boarding home where his ambition was realized‐‐he had three square meals a day. Meanwhile his father was located in Cuba, and at his request Pascal was placed under our supervision with another relative. The father repaid us for everything expended, so the only cost to the Society to rescue this child from a life of terrible abuse and neglect was the time and expenses of the agent while working on the case.

The experiment of establishing a branch office at Bellows Falls for the work in the southern part of the State has proved successful. Both the opportunities for service and interest in the work have grown more rapidly because an agent has headquarters in that section of Vermont. The gift of a Dodge roadster by Mrs. G. H. Eggleston for the use of the southern office has been invaluable. The citizens of Bellows Falls gave substantial evidence of interest when they rented and equipped in that village a pleasant office for Miss Abbott.

Attention is called to the statistical report which is appended, especially to the comparative statement showing the growth of the work in the past year; 329 cases this year as against 219 last year; 76 wards this year as against 25 last year; 95 cases untouched because of lack of time as against 44 last year.

Our hope is that with the growing appeal to us for service we may be enabled by the interest and generosity of our friends to establish a second branch office in the northern part of the State. With a hard winter before us, we see no prospects of enlargement, but we have faith to believe that in some way we may increasingly serve the need of Vermont children.

We wish to express our appreciation of the cooperation we have received from the Women's Clubs of the State, many of which have subscribed to our work, sewed for our children and helped with a canvass for funds. We have worked closely with the State Board of Charities and Probation, the Red Cross, the State Preventorium, Kurn Hattin Homes, the State Industrial School and the Orphanages of the State. and are grateful not only for their cooperation, but for a feeling of good‐will and mutual support which we believe to be growing among the child‐caring agencies of the State.