HOW FARMING PAYS. 47 



within a very recent period that the ciy has gone up from 

 every quarter, "Does it pay?" Our senators and represen- 

 tatives to Congress of the last generation gloried in being 

 respectably poor, and expected to return to their homes uo 

 richer than they went away. The richest men were not then 

 selected, as intellect and honesty were valued before wealth; 

 and it is related that, as the members of the New Hampshire 

 legislature assembled in the State House some years ago, before 

 the session commenced, an aged farmer, who proved to be a 

 man of good seuse, appeared among them very poorly clad. 

 He was told that that room was for members of the legislature. 

 He replied that he was a member elect from such a town, and 

 added, "There are men in our town better qualified for the 

 work of legislation than I am, but they had not clothes fit to 

 wear here." We send a good many representatives now-a- 

 days to Congress and " general court," who wear good clothes 

 enough, but have a failing in heart and head like the horse 

 and man in the following anecdote : A would-be wag over- 

 taking an old minister whose nag was much fatigued, quizzed 

 him thus: "A nice horse yours, Doctor — very valuable 

 beast that you are riding, but what makes him wag his tail 

 so ? " " The same that causes your tongue to wag so — a sort 

 of natural weakness ," was the old gentleman's reply. During 

 the long session of our legislature, last winter and spring, a 

 man from the country was talking with a citizen of Boston, 

 near the State House, when he asked him, "Is that a gas- 

 house?" " Yes," was the reply, "it is the state gas-house ! " 

 And these fellows with the good clothes and " natural weak- 

 nesses" manufacture the most of the gas. 



The question as to farming paying is mostly of comparison. 

 It will not do to compare our condition with the wealthy mer- 

 chants and manufacturers, but with the mass of laboring peo- 

 ple who are earning a living in factories, shops, cities and 

 uncongenial places, with more expenditure of muscle, less 

 present comforts, more precarious future, than falls to the lot 

 of the farmer. When you come to talk about being rich, you 

 will find as much dissatisfaction among those whom we should 

 consider well off, as among the poorer clases. "A man is as 

 well off, " said Astor, " who is only worth a million of dollars, 

 as he would be if he were rich." And one of the stories told 



