Country and City 91 



is no longer in his soil. He loves to walk in 

 a swamp in windy weather, and hear the wind 

 groan through the pines. He indulges in no 

 luxury of food, or dress, or furniture, yet he is 

 not penurious, but merely simple. If his sister 

 dies before him, he may have to go to the alms- 

 house in his old age, yet he is not poor, for he 

 does not want riches." 



WE NEED THE COUNTRY 



Therefore I preach the open country, because 

 it is natural and without affectation. 



I preach the plain and frugal living of 

 plain people. Yesterday the bill of fare 

 that was put before me at my hotel con- 

 tained, by actual count, the names of 567 

 articles. To judge by the names, most of 

 them were inedible. Ten articles are suffi- 

 cient, and twenty are luxury. 



I preach the steadiness of country life, 

 its freedom from speculativeness and from 

 great temptation to evil doing. We need the 

 example of all simple and direct lives, even if 

 we lose some of the " polished " manners. We 



