THE LURE OF THE LAND 9 



points of superiority. At least in the suburbs you can 

 have a house with the light and air of heaven all around 

 it, and if it is beautiful, as sometimes it may be, its 

 beauty will not be confined to the front door, as is the 

 case in the city. The suburbanite can have his yard 

 and his garden, even, though he may have to hire their 

 care. He has light and air, he has opportunity for his 

 children to place their feet upon the ground, and he 

 does not have a saloon at every corner of his yard. He 

 should be schooled beforehand, however, to bear the 

 burdens becomingly and to know that even in the sub- 

 urbs life is not one long dream of happiness. 



But most of all I would speak for those who intend 

 to be real farmers, to live upon the farm and gain their 

 livelihood therefrom, and by farm I do not mean sim- 

 ply fields of wheat and corn, but I mean orchards and 

 dairies and gardens and forests, in fact all the various 

 activities by means of which Mother Earth yields her 

 treasures of grain and fruit and flowers to her tenants. 

 Hard as the life is, full of unexpected difficulties, ac- 

 cidents and discouragements, one should not be always 

 deterred from trying it. And so I would speak the 

 truth about farm life and call attention to some of 

 its difficulties, and warn the man who feels the lure of 

 the land in his heart against possible disasters. 



At the same time, I would extend the right hand of 

 fellowship to those who come. I would teach them the 

 philosophy of patience, the dignity of labor, the splen- 

 dor of producing something that is of real value and 

 not merely an exchanging of values with the hope of a 

 " commission," and instil into their minds the philos- 

 ophy of living as near to nature as possible. Then if 

 they follow the natural impulse, they will not suffer such 

 grievous disappointments, nor magnify disasters, nor 



