The Rustic: a Protest. 221 



face to face with danger. The rustic's eye may 

 not follow the cunning of the landscape spread 

 upon canvas, but it notes the changing scene 

 as the seasons pass, and makes the rustic the 

 reliable guide if you would know where the 

 sweetest fruits and brightest flowers are found ; 

 and it is not an unknown occurrence for the 

 museum-lounging naturalist to experience a set- 

 back when he airs his science in the rustic's 

 hearing. Untaught, yes ; we admit it, but every 

 inch a man. Do those from the city always 

 bear measuring by the same standard ? Is the 

 rest from toil less wholesome, more animal-like, 

 less worthy of a man, sought in the rude rocker 

 of hickory splints, than that, too often sought 

 in vain, on velvet cushions ? It is a matter of 

 difference of education, of tastes in opposite 

 directions, but is there less manliness ? Is the 

 rustic really lower in the scale ? Is being nearer 

 to Nature lower than being part and parcel of a 

 town ? The most fastidious can pass weeks with 

 a rustic and yet never have a fair opportunity to 

 criticise adversely one word or deed. That the 

 "untaught" condition of the rustic, as viewed 

 by the city man, signifies lack of refinement and 



