Variety in the Farmer's Culture. 481 



traced to incessant care, anxiety and worry, and too lit- 

 tle recreation. The farmer carries his lotids all the time"* 

 He gets up with them on his back in the morninoj. He 

 puts them in his pockets at meal-times. He puts them in 

 his cart when he goes to his work in the fields. He goes 

 to church and town meeting with them, and places them 

 deep in his lieart when he goes to bed at night. 



" The mechanic and artisan, much more than the farmer, 

 seek amusement, diversion or recreation, outside of work- 

 ing hours, and, generally, find something of the sort. 

 (But, if two farmers get together, how sombre and melan- 

 choly is sure to be their talk. The danger of a short crop 

 is a very handy theme to pitch their tune by. The terribly 

 bad weather will strain up at least one chord in their harp 

 of a thousand strings so that it is ready to break. The 

 " catching " rains of harvest time, the horn and hoof ail 

 will always fetch a lugubrious wail from any farmer ; and 

 then the taxes. And, finally, if there be a mortgage on the 

 farm, there is reason enough for bewailing.) 



" To be perpetually thinking of one idea, and running on 

 one track is just the thing which upsets the mental balance. 

 One kind of food taken all the time will give awf al dys- 

 pepsia to any body, and a perpetually blue feeling about our 

 condition, be it correct or not, will give us mental aches 

 that no bodily pain can ever equal." 



After this strain and according to this theory the \NTiter 



goes on. Whether his judgment in the case is correct, his 



accounting sufiicient, or his statements applicable to the 



farmers of Yermont, and, in particular, to those of Mad 



16 



