SUCCESS ON THE FARM. 13 



farmer in order to strengthen his faith and confidence in the 

 God of the seasons, against the time of trial. There comes 

 to every man and every family a time of trial and disap- 

 pointment, when the mind is bewildered, and the heart grows 

 faint, and hope dies out, and comes not back with the morn- 

 ing light. But there are trials and disappointments that are 

 peculiar to the tiller of the soil. For after he has selected 

 the seed with the greatest care, and planted it in the most 

 congenial soil, and cultivated the growing crops with the 

 greatest care and persistency; and when every indication 

 would seem to warrant a large and even bountiful harvest, 

 and he begins to count his gains as sure, — then comes the 

 drought of summer, and he waits for the coming rain ; but it 

 comes not. The earth is parched and dry beneath his feet. 

 The heavens above him are red with their brazen heat, and 

 the disheartened farmer must look on his withering and 

 wasting crops, as helpless as the shipwrecked mariner float- 

 ing on at the mercy of the great deep sea ; for to make an 

 effort of resistance is to cope with the infinite forces of 

 nature. 



But suppose a remnant of what gave so much promise a 

 short time since is left him, and he begins to hope that some- 

 thing, after all, will be left him ; then come the swarming 

 insects, and the countless hordes of vermin that crawl at 

 his feet, or fly in the air ; and, after these have taken their 

 share of the precious fruits, there is but little left for the 

 early frost, that leaves our cornfields as black and as barren 

 as the plains of the Nile when the overflowing tides refuse to 

 come. But suppose this picture to be a little overdrawn. 

 Suppose the harvest redeems the promise of the spring-time 

 and the summer, and the root-crops groan and grow, and the 

 corn-fields laugh in the sunlight, and the trees are loaded 

 with their golden fruit, the granaries are full, the barns can 

 hold no more, the storehouses burst forth with their rich 

 treasures ; then he is told that the markets are full, and that 

 there is no sale for his products at a remunerative price, and 

 he knows not whether to pray to be delivered from his friends 

 or his enemies. Now the farmer, standing in the presence of 

 such defeat, and sometimes disaster, as this, needs a well- 

 cultivated moral nature, that will produce in him a faith and 

 confidence in God, the Creator and the Ruler of this uni- 



