No. 4.] COUNTRY LIFE. 123 



to take a short course in something that " will be easy." 

 They want to take some middle ground that does not 

 deepen or broaden the ideas. They want to get a soft 

 place. And the young man who wants an easy place 

 always has it, — usually in prison, where he ought to be. 

 Easy places do not make men and women. A victory easily 

 won is no victory at all. It is only a mighty victory, like 

 the one at Gettysburg, where the cannon cracked, shots were 

 fired and blood was shed. There are no victories in easy 

 places, where men run before you shoot at them. I have 

 always thought myself very unfortunate in my war experi- 

 ence. I was most always in a safe place. I see my com- 

 rades with scars on their faces, with the marks of war, 

 limping still, and I was unfortunate in not getting into any 

 such battles and winning victories as they had the privilege 

 of doing. 



Let the man who wants an easy time go to New York 

 and keep a saloon. I do not know of anything that would 

 be easier done, until he is killed in some of the riots. The 

 man who means to be a true man grapples with things for 

 the sake of grappling with them. The man on the hills in 

 the country towns contends with the hard soil, removes the 

 stones and puts in the seeds. The man is worth more than 

 the potatoes. You had better stay here and be a man, than 

 go west and have the malaria. 



Sleep makes great men. Some of you remember the old 

 cottage in the hills ; you remember the old attic into which 

 the snow drifted at night ; and how after you slept there 

 you arose in the morning, picked up your toes very care- 

 fully and soon found yourself down on the first floor beside 

 the fire, with half your clothes in your hands. How sweet 

 that sleep was ! How delightful those dreams, when the 

 rain was pattering on the roof ! What would you give now 

 for a night's rest like that? You made a mistake if you 

 left that home and went to the city or to the plain. Oh, 

 foolish poor farmer, who would give the health and man- 

 hood of the hills for the dollars of the city ! 



Great men are made in the country towns of Massachu- 

 setts. Great leaders of the nations, and especially the 

 great men of the United States, were largely made by their 



