150 CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FARM. 



I 



How wise we are, as we look back ! How clear- 

 sightedly we discover each blunder, arid its cause : 

 how surely we believe that here at least, and there 

 at least forgive us this once, O Common sense 

 and Judgment! and we will promise never to be 

 such fools again ! 



Did ever man build a house or farm a farm 

 or even drain a marshy meadow and not feel 

 some touch of this provoking after-wisdom that 

 comes too late telling of material and money 

 wasted plans insufficiently considered, too hastily 

 accredited tiles mislaid, too shallow or too deep, 

 or in the wrong direction? In the matter of brick- 

 and-mortar such aftersight is grown a proverb ; and 

 is it otherwise in land? Let him that has never 

 felt it, cast the first stone : he has known little of 

 Life's learning who has never repeated to himself 

 how true it is that Experience is never given, 



but always bought; at the top price of the 



market too! 



But there is this consoling difference between 

 Bricks and Tiles, that is to say, between Building 

 and Farming : that whereas in the former case you 

 always find your cost in having done too much, 

 proceeded on too large a scale in the latter case 

 you mostly find, such at least was my discovery 



