24 ADVENTURES IN IDEALISM 



pacity they needed it agricultural advice above all. 

 That whole summer, with one-half dozen men, he 

 worked hard to improve the soil, the shrubs, the crops 

 not only to make them profitable, but to make of this 

 big farm a model for his tenants and for all the farmers 

 in the neighborhood, far and wide. He was the 

 broadly enlightened agriculturist who knew of the 

 latest and best ways of tilling the soil, among a very 

 ignorant and backward peasantry. From near and far 

 they began to come to him for advice. The very first 

 year showed good results from his improved methods. 

 The peasants took eager note of it and his name was on 

 everyone's lips. 



The hard summer and fall season over, my husband 

 started a course of lectures on "The Right Way of 

 Tilling the Soil." Peasants would come, rain or shine, 

 with their wives and grown-up sons and daughters, 

 often from versts and versts around. The big empty 

 barn saw life. It was crowded to its full capacity with 

 peasants, very eager to learn and to devour every word. 

 And after the lectures were over, the farmers would 

 talk about many a topic of the day, hurling question 

 after question at my husband, so that time and again it 

 would be well after midnight before the gatherings 

 broke up. These gatherings took place Saturday eve- 

 nings, and eagerly did the neighbors wait for those 

 Saturdays to come! What a source of enlightenment 

 it was for them! If any of the tenants and neighbors 

 knew, or even surmised, that the man they grew to be 



