_ 
The Birds’ Calendar 
myself. His sweeping remark very skilfully 
laid us all pretty nearly equally low. As a 
candid expression of opinion I heard nothing 
superior to it all summer. 
But I have an easy and reasonable revenge in 
remarking, how like the unappreciated pearls 
mentioned in Scripture are the beauties of nat- 
ure in the eyes of the average soil-tiller. With 
all due regard for the many notable exceptions 
(perhaps sufficient to prevent any sweeping al- 
legations), how often, nevertheless, do we find 
the farmer not only without sympathy, but 
with an undisguised contempt, for any stray 
scientist or artist—for anyone in fact whom he 
finds crossing his domains with his line of vis- 
ion lying higher than potatoes and corn. 
In view of the fact that a farmer’s life in its 
essential character is undeniably poetic, allur- 
ing many in the various learned professions 
with the hope that before they end their days 
they may be able, in some measure, to adopt 
this most primitive and natural pursuit ; why is 
it that those who actually cultivate the soil so 
generally develop only the dull and prosy side 
of life? No other occupation presents the 
ideal and the real side of it in such diametrical 
opposition. In the acres of vegetables, broad 
238 
