"TALPA" LOQUITUK. 175 



very thing which I at such time suffered a small 

 martyrdom in the vain endeavor to urge upon them. 

 I know not whether other " employers of labor " 

 have felt this sort of paulo post experience as I have 

 done. But I suspect so ; for every man is (and it is 

 comforting to think so) only the unit of a class. It 

 is difficult to study for successive years the charac- 

 ter of a soil, without learning something of the 

 character of those employed upon, aye and even of 

 those who visit, it. And this has been my especial 

 grievance, and one which Time, the "smooth-handed 

 god," has increased, not lightened. People who de- 

 rided my " improvements," laughed at my " deep " 

 drains, bewept my grubbed-up ash-stumps, mourned 

 over my obliterated hedgerows, turned up noses at 

 my Tank, listened with mock gravity to my " mys- 

 terious " remarks about the " economy of warmth " 

 as cheaper than the "equivalent in food" and a 

 great many other things that it would take an in- 

 ventory to tell do now come and preach to me 

 my own poor antiquated texts, that I should really 

 begin, as other worthies have done before me, to 

 doubt my own identity but fora little store laid 

 by in a corner, of the capital I began with, and 

 which I commend again to all beginners namely, 

 of philosophy. 



