And What We Gain 233 



sails away without three or four of them on 

 board, they are never left behind when we start 

 for a day's outing, they know as much about 

 the garden as I do, and probably to this active 

 open-air life they owe largely their strength 

 and ruddy cheeks. I have tried both ways of 

 life, and whatever may be said in favor of the 

 city so far as adults are concerned, there are 

 no two ways of thinking so far as concerns the 

 children. After a few years, when it becomes 

 necessary to fit them for active life, I suppose 

 that the boys will go to college, and I am not 

 at all afraid of their ability to hold their own 

 and to get all the good that may be obtained 

 by a struggle for wealth if they should choose 

 to strive for it. As to the girls, it may be 

 said that in the wilderness they would grow 

 up ignorant of most accomplishments valued 

 in young women, such as music, painting, etc. 

 But here, again, it is a question of home in- 

 fluence. Inasmuch as my girls will hear at 

 home twenty times as much good music as 

 the average New York girl even in fashionable 

 life is likely to hear, and a hundred times 

 as much talk about it, there is no fear that if 



