AN "APPLICATION." 137 



"Three lines will do." 



"I can't, Sir, really! I couldn't read a word of it 

 if you 'd give me the world ! " 



" One single line." 



"I can't indeed! I never learnt a word o' this 

 stuff." 



"An agricultural author too! His name is Theo- 

 phrastus. It's all about Wheat, Beans Egyptian 

 beans the same you buy at Mark-lane kiln-dried, 

 and all sorts of other plants and vegetables. Surely 

 you can read it?" 



" Not if all I have in the world depended on it ! 

 I never learnt the alphabet ! " 



" Thank you, my young friend that 's an honest 

 answer. Now observe : you arc going to pledge 

 ' all you have in the world,' and all that Somebody 

 else has too that you can farm' and you've 

 never learnt the alphabet of that! The task you 

 see before you in that book, and think so difficult, 

 is but the acquirement of a few years ; the other 

 is the labor of a life of many lives and not 

 learnt yet. I'm not joking, believe me. I speak 

 seriously ; I 've burnt daylight and candlelight, 

 a fair share, over both. Why do you think 

 why does everybody think that he can farm 

 without having learnt how ; that agriculture (if 



