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 



