OUT-OF-TOWN PLACES 



who will refund the cost of his whims; but 

 the chances are by no means in his favor. 



Another large source of disgust with rural 

 undertakings lies in the difficulty of finding 

 efficient and honest directing labor. We have 

 in this country no class of farm bailiffs who, 

 by education and tradition, know their duties, 

 and quietly perform them. We have indeed 

 shipments, from year to year, of stray speci- 

 mens of this old country class; but the demo- 

 cratic instinct speedily overtakes them— of 

 becoming directors in chief. As good demo- 

 crats — which of course all Americans are — we 

 ought not to regret this, but it comes awk- 

 wardly in the way of a great many city visions 

 of rural felicitude. Mike, who has toiled far 

 into the twilight, under the shadows of the 

 hills of Wicklow, comes deftly and easily into 

 a ten-hour system, by virtue of which, on some 

 June day your out-spread hay lies smoking 

 under the evening dew ; and Bridget, the stout 

 lass, red-armed, and crimson-cheeked, com- 

 mended for all work, who has milked the 

 spotted kine in the folds that border Killarney, 

 "many a time, and oft," is quick to compre- 

 hend the American deference for the sex, and 

 explodes upon you with "Shure ! and it's niver 

 a woman's work ! " 



246 



