42 THE BUSINESS OP FAKMING 



for him to whine and get the grouch spirit when 

 discouragement settles upon him. 



But above everything he should avoid the 

 " kicking habit, " unless he contracts the right 

 sort of a "kicking habit." For there are two 

 kinds and we should strive to possess the one, the 

 other we should avoid as we do a pestilence. 



The two are easily distinguished. The one is 

 kicking against some bad law or condition, some 

 obnoxious person, or some wrongs that really and 

 truly exist. The other is the kicking against the 

 unseen, the unapproachable, Nature's immutable 

 laws, true progress and improvement, and the 

 natural laws of trade, commerce and finance. 



John Kendrick Bangs in the little couplet 



"Fve never found by kicking yet 

 That I could make a dry day wet : 

 But I can make a wet day fair 

 By putting on a smiling air/' 



shows the utter folly of kicking against conditions 

 that no human agency could possibly change, and 

 shows us how we may turn such conditions to our 

 everlasting advantage. 



The farmer can so easily cultivate the grouch 

 pessimistic spirit by everlasting kicking against 

 the unpreventable conditions, so he should ever 

 strive to rise to sublime heights and take the^ 

 sting from them with the "smiling air" which 

 scatters the darkest clouds and lights up the most 

 sorrowful face with luminous joy. 



But the farmer should cultivate, as every other 

 good citizen should, the true kicking spirit as 



