4 THE LURE OF THE LAND 



consist alone in watching the beautiful sunrise, in 

 strolling through a shady forest, or wandering by a bab- 

 bling brook. To the farmer's boy life means early 

 rising, hard and continuous labor, plain and often poorly 

 cooked food, hard beds, and an absence of all the oppor- 

 tunities which the youth so strongly desires. It is just 

 as natural for the farmer's boy to look towards the town 

 as it is for the town boy to look towards the country, 

 but these conflicting desires arise from different sources. 



To the farmer's boy the town appeals as a means of 

 a career. The country appeals to the city boy as a 

 place of rest and quiet enjoyment. When you turn 

 your face towards the city you go to hard struggle, a 

 hard environment, to a life surrounded by temptations. 

 When you face the country, on the contrary, you look 

 to a life of repose, of quiet, not devoid of labor, but 

 with greater certainty of success and less ignominy 

 of failure. The one is an instinct to return to the nat- 

 ural life, the other is a desire to acquire the artificial 

 life. Each of them is logical, and each of these de- 

 sires must be reckoned with from the standpoint of 

 practical philosophy. 



The point that I wish to make is this : When should 

 the city man yield to his desire to go to the country ? 

 I would not in any way seek to diminish the intensity 

 of this desire, but I think it wise to do something to 

 help control it and to set forth the facts of the case in 

 some way which may be beneficial to the man who 

 tires, as every good man should tire, of city life. The 

 number of those who are able to go to the country and 

 found large estates, build fine houses and drive fine 

 horses, is extremely limited. On the other hand, the 

 number of men in very moderate circumstances who 

 would love to yield to the longing for out-of-door life 



