2Q MAINE STATE SOCIETY. 



healthj, vigorous, ever fresh, ever charming literature, -n-hicli in 

 papers and books, teaches them how to honor their calling, how, in 

 fealtj to it, to attain the grandest and the most beautiful results, 

 and to consecrate and adorn their whole sphere, so as to make it 

 gloriously attractive to the world at large, but especially so to those 

 who are nearest and dearest to their hearts, their wives, who share 

 with them in toil and care, and their sons and daughters who look 

 to them for instruction and guidance, for the best views and the best 

 counsel, as to the sphere they should occupy, or the pursuit they 

 should follow. The children of these men early learn to think 

 unfavorably of their homes, when these homes rise up before their 

 minds, in contrast with the cottages and mansions in the village, or 

 the blocks of costly and magnificent palaces in the city ; and to draw 

 the conclusion, when they consider the aspect of things around them, 

 as compared with the grand exliibitions of commerce, manuHictures, 

 and other great interests on the tide waters, and in the populous 

 inland towns, that farming is a mean occupation, and that whoever 

 devotes his faculties, his time, and his toil, to this pursuit, must 

 always be but a drudge, but a menial, rude, uncouth, envious, thank- 

 less, and joyless. 



The farmer's home should be a home of convenience, comfort and 

 beauty. It is, in many instances, otherwise, unnecessarily. You 

 will see a house large enough, and costly enough, and, . as to its 

 exterior, handsome enough. But it is not a pleasant abode. The 

 blinds of the great front rooms are all closed. The spiders weave 

 their webs in the parlor and in the hall, and the floors, perhaps, are 

 carpeted with corn and dried apples. No stately elms stand in the 

 . yard, to cast their shadows, now over the road, and now over the 

 roof. No roses, nor pinks, nor forget-me-nots, bloom in the garden. 

 The grass is rank and tall in the path leading to the door, and the 

 binges and the latch of the gate are yellow with rust. In a single 

 room, in the rear of the dwelling, the domestic cares are attended to, 

 and all the usual in-door operations, toils, and communions, take 

 place. Here, cooking, and eating, and conversation, are all blended 

 and confined together ; and there is not much else to be done here ; 

 the father, or one of the boys, may whittle a goad-stick, or finish a 

 yoke ; the mother and girls, may attend to the dairy ; — nothing 

 besides, is done worthy to be mentioned. There is no living room, 



