248 PHASES OF FARM LIFE. 



and the sweaty, sturdy forms that have crossed it. One 

 feels that he would like a piece of furniture a chair, 

 N or a table, or a writing-desk, a bedstead, or a wainscot- 

 ing made from these long-seasoned, long-tried, richly 

 &&+** * toned timbers of the old barn. But the smart-painted, 

 natty barn that follows the humbler structure, with its 

 glazed windows, its ornamented ventilator and gilded 

 weather vane who cares to contemplate it ? \The 

 'vV^wise human eye loves modesty and humility, loves 

 plain, simple structures, loves the unpainted barn that 

 took no thought of itself, or the dwelling that looks 

 inward and not outward ; is offended when the farm 

 I buildings get above their business and aspire to be 

 something on their own account, suggesting not cattle 

 and crops and plain living, but the vanities of the 

 town and the pride of dress and equipage.) 



Indeed, the picturesque in human affairs and occu- 

 pations is always born of love and humility, as it is 

 in art or literature ; and it quickly takes to itself 

 wings and flies away at the advent of pride, or any 

 selfish or unworthy motive. The more directly the 

 farm savors of the farmer, the more the fields and 

 buildings are redolent of human care and toil, with- 

 out any thought of the passer-by the more we de- 

 light in the contemplation of it. 



It is unquestionably true that farm life and farm 



scenes in this country are less picturesque than they 



were fifty or one hundred years ago. This is owing 



\ partly to the advent of machinery, which enables the 



farmer to do so much of his work by proxy and hence 



