The Mississippi River can be taught as a great drama, from its rise in Lake Itasca to its triumphal entry into the Gulf.  As it takes its way southward pine forests wave their salutes, then wheat fields, then corn fields, and, later, cotton fields.  Then its tributaries may be seen coming upon the stage to help swell the mighty sweep of progress toward the sea.  When geography is taught as a drama, appreciation is inevitable.

The resourceful teacher can find a thousand dramas in the books on geography if she knows how to interpret the pages of the books, and with these inspiring dramas she can lift her pupils to the very pinnacle of appreciation.  Such tales are as fascinating as fairy stories and have the added charm of being true to the teachings of science.  A raindrop seems a common thing, but cast in dramatic form it becomes of rare charm.  It slides from the roof of the house and finds its way into the tiny rivulet, then into the brook, then into the river and thus finally reaches the sea.  By the process of evaporation, it is transformed into vapor and is carried over the land by currents of air.  As it comes into contact with colder currents, condensation ensues and then precipitation, and our raindrop descends to earth once more.  Sinking into the soil at the foot of the tree it is taken up into the tree by capillary attraction, out through the branches and then into the fruit.  Then comes the sunshine to ripen the fruit, and finally this fruit is harvested and borne to the market, whence it reaches the home.  Here it is served at the breakfast table and the curtain of our drama goes down with our raindrop as orange-juice on the lip of the little girl.

When we come to realize, in our enlarged vision, the possibilities of geography in fostering the quality of appreciation, our teaching of the subject will be changed and vitalized, our textbooks will be written from a different angle, and our pupils will receive a much larger return upon their investment of time and effort.  The study of geography will be far less like the conning of a gazetteer or a city directory and more like a fascinating story.  In our astronomical geography we shall make many a pleasing excursion into the far spaces and win stimulating glimpses into the infinities.  In our physical geography we shall read marvelous stories that outrival the romances of Dumas and Hugo.  And geography as a whole will reveal herself as the cherishing mother of us all, providing us with food, and drink, and shelter, and raiment, giving us poetry, and song, and story, and weaving golden fancies for the fabric of our daily dreams.