202 FARMING IT 



Indeed, in the Greek Quarter of the town in 

 which I had spent five happy and amusing years, 

 I was viewed with the utmost suspicion and my 

 wife pitied, because I had committed the entire 

 neighborhood to print, and had made them sever- 

 ally, and, according to the sale of the book, more 

 or less, immortal. And when we moved from that 

 delightful neighborhood we realized that our de- 

 parture did not affect the price of real estate to 

 any marked degree. 



In the next neighborhood where we spent a 

 year, we were not over-popular, because we had 

 long outgrown the cabinet-organ and plush- 

 album stage, and did not regard the cuspidore 

 as a household necessity ; nor did I aspire to oc- 

 cupy any of the chairs in the many lodges and 

 secret orders with which the face of our beloved 

 village was thickly speckled. 



And so, when I moved to the farm, I made up 

 my mind to view men and things with a more 

 serious eye, and in short, to be good and live 

 happily ever afterwards. 



It was hard, however, to break a habit of years. 

 When one has spent the greater part of one's life 

 in seeing the amusing side of men and things, 

 it is hard, desperately hard, to close one's eyes 

 and thoughts to the humorous sights and ideas 

 that association with one's neighbors brings. 



And the sight of some of my dignified neigh- 



