202 What We Lose 



absence having broken connections that might 

 have become profitable with time ; (5) to leave 

 town for good, or practically for good, is unfair 

 to my wife and children, even if I do find 

 pleasure and profit myself in such a step. It 

 is implied that life without new bonnets is not 

 worth living to a woman, and that children 

 may grow up to be young savages. In the 

 following pages I try to answer these objec- 

 tions. Whether or not I succeed in convincing 

 any one, I am sure that they rest upon a wholly 

 false estimate of the value of city life and upon 

 the equally false notion to the effect that intel- 

 lectual growth cannot take place far from great 

 cities. One of my acquaintances to whom I 

 announced one day that I hoped never again 

 to spend more than ten weeks of the year in 

 the city, said to me: "How do you get on 

 without society? In summer you may have 

 city friends glad to share your bluefish and 

 honey for a few weeks, but the rest of the year 

 before July and after September it must be 

 lonely enough to drive you crazy." 



So I must hear the talk of the town in order 

 to be happy? Seriously, I do not believe that 



