THE LURE OF THE LAND 6 



is immensely large. Before indulging this desire, how- 

 ever, some practical points are worthy of consideration. 



In the first place, the lure of the land, even in ma- 

 ture persons, is apt to lose its pull when brought up 

 against the hard conditions of country life. The per- 

 son who thinks of going to the country, therefore, 

 should be perfectly certain that he really wants to go. 

 It may be he is longing only for a vacation, and in this 

 case in a few weeks or months, or at most years, he will 

 tire of his vacation and desire to return to the old con- 

 ditions. It is most unfortunate, in a case like this, that 

 he should have so disposed of his fortune as to make it 

 practically impossible to get away from the country 

 with which he once was so enamored. 



There is a large number of city men, and it is 

 mostly among the men that this desire obtains, who 

 have achieved respectable careers as teachers, as em- 

 ployees in business houses, as physicians, as lawyers, as 

 ministers, as business men, whose eyes are turning to- 

 wards the country. Should they yield to this tempta- 

 tion, or should they stay where they are making a re- 

 spectable living and deporting themselves as respectable 

 citizens ? The answer to this question, of course, can- 

 not be a general one. It all depends. First of all, the 

 wife and daughters should be consulted. While the 

 husband and father may desire to go to the country, the 

 wife and daughter may not. The venture is certain to 

 be a failure unless all parties are agreed upon its de- 

 sirability. The titular head of the house, therefore, 

 should never lose his heart to the lure of the land until 

 he is certain that the wife and the daughter, and the son 

 too, for that matter, are of the same mind. A mere so- 

 journ of a week, or a month, as boarders at a farmhouse 

 is by no means sufficient to determine this point. Many 



