AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 119 



CHAPTER VI. 



Wanting the Best The Poorer Lands first Cultivated, then the 

 Richer Ones Value of Swamps History of three of them 

 Cranberry Swamps of New Jersey Power of Example The 

 Mississippi Swamp Interest Wealth following Reclamation 

 Public Loans to aid Drainage John Johnston, the Great Amer 

 ican Tile Drainer. 



IT is a feature of American thought and habit to 

 be rigid and exacting. We are too apt to reject the 

 moderately valuable, and to insist on having only 

 the best. The habit has infected even the children, 

 beggars though some of them may be. A ragged 

 little urchin came one morning to a gentleman s 

 door, asking for old clothes. He brought him a 

 vest and a pair of pants, which promised to make a 

 comfortable fit. Young America took the garments 

 in his hand, and examining them as closely as if he 

 had been buying them, then, with a disconsolate 

 look, exclaimed, &quot;There ain t no watch-pocket!&quot; 

 Now, the truly great are humble; just as those ears 

 of corn, and those boughs of trees which are the 

 most heavily laden, are seen to bend the lowest. 

 The urchin s impudence represents the national pro 

 pensity we must have the best. . 



But what we may conceive to be the best for us, 

 frequently turns out otherwise. It is thus in seek- 



