MR. URBAN AND A COUNTRY HOUSE 



be thoroughly infected, I only counsel modest 

 expectations — a proper humanity toward his 

 working cattle, and the ordinary business fore- 

 sight of keeping a good balance at his bank 

 when the bills come in. 



If he has neither short-horn nor landscape 

 ambition, and is not infected with any mania 

 of drainage, or peat, or Liebig — wishing only 

 the grateful shade from trees not subject to 

 the visitations of the curculio, and a sweet 

 bowl of milk to his supper, let him not be too 

 eager to discard the offices of those old-style 

 farmers, who, if not adepts in culture, are 

 adepts in saving. 



Finally, if his rural fantasy is only a short- 

 lived whim that may pass one day — if not 

 from his own mind, at least from the more 

 sensitive and demonstrative mind of his help- 

 meet — let him buy where he can sell. He may 

 be sure that the trees will lose none of their 

 pleasantness of their leafy rustle if it be spent 

 on ears that listen more eagerly than his own. 

 His porches, his arbors, his walks, his fields 

 will entertain him none the less, if cO>retous 

 eyes look over the fence at them. There may 

 be something very wicked, but there is some- 

 thing very human in the cheerfulness with 

 which we watch people breaking the tenth 



275 



