24 Living on Next to 



music, to see a few good plays, to see the 

 world, to hear the buzz of life; my children 

 must go to school ; they cannot grow up fisher- 

 men or market-gardeners." This is a serious 

 part of the problem and cannot be ignored. In 

 my own case it happens that I can go to the 

 city for a few months in the depth of winter 

 and make enough money to pay my way during 

 those months, going back to my country life 

 when the spring opens. Nevertheless, after a 

 fair trial of several years of this kind of life, 

 much country, and little city, had I to choose 

 to-morrow between giving up one or the other 

 entirely, between devoting myself wholly to 

 making every penny out of my garden and my 

 poultry-yard, never going to New York at all, 

 except for a day or two once or twice a year, 

 or beginning again the city life of incessant 

 work, of anxiety, of late hours, and bad air, 

 with its compensations in the way of more 

 money, better clothes, amusements between 

 these two lives I should not hesitate for a mo- 

 ment. The country life, as I make my life, 

 gives me out-door work, which is now a physi- 

 cal necessity, gives me more light and air, gives 



