80 MY FARM. 



not be ; if the latter, and he have no capacity to cou 

 vert into available workers, such motley mateiials, 

 the sooner you discharge him the better ; but if he 

 have this capacity, and is, besides, so far cognizant of 

 your ownership, as not to take offence at your pres 

 ence, and to permit of your suggestions cherish 

 him ; he has rare virtues. 



From the hints I have already dropped in regard 

 to the qualities and characteristics of the available 

 &quot; milkmaids &quot; and ploughmen, it will naturally be 

 inferred that I would not be anxious to entertain a 

 large squad of such, under the low-browed ceilings 

 of the country home I have described. 



And here comes under observation that romanti 

 cism about equality of condition and of tastes, which 

 many kindly and poetically-disposed persons are in 

 clined to engraft upon their ideal of the farm life. 

 There is, indeed, a current misjudgment on this head, 

 which is quite common, and which the exaggerated 

 tone of rural literature generally, from Virgil down, 

 has greatly encouraged. The rural writers dodge all 

 the dirty work of the farm, and regale us with thn 

 odors of the new-mown hay. The plain truth is, 

 however, that if a man perspires largely in a corn 

 field of a dusty day, and washes hastily in the horse 

 trough, and eats in shirt sleeves that date their cleanli 

 ness three days back, and loves fat pork and cabbage 



