What We Lose and Gain 201 



my friends dread the mention of the subject. 

 In the beginning they argued the matter; now 

 they laugh, as if to say that I have become so 

 infatuated with my hobby as to have lost all 

 sense of proportion. I never expected to make 

 a convert ; in fact, I should feel rather uncom- 

 fortable if any friend of mine should desert his 

 desk and take to the garden for a living upon 

 my advice. So that I have not been disap- 

 pointed. At the same time, I have discovered 

 nothing to make me doubt the soundness of 

 my position. I listen to ridicule and argu- 

 ment, endeavoring to give due weight to what 

 I hear. The chief reasons why this desertion 

 of the town is denounced as folly may be 

 summed up as follows: (i) The loneliness of 

 the country will become oppressive ; (2) it will 

 be impossible to give my family more than the 

 comforts of a workman's home our living will 

 be plain, our clothes will be unfashionable, our 

 rich neighbors will not call upon us; (3) the 

 children will grow up no better than farmers' 

 children ; (4) in the end there will be a return 

 to town to take up the old life under con- 

 ditions of greater hardship than ever, years of 



