VII 



THE FRUIT-FARM AND THE YOUNG FOLKS 



IT is a common saying among parents: "We 

 want the children to have something when we 

 are gone; we began with nothing and know how 

 hard life is'*; and so they save for their children. 

 But what of the children? 



The master built a ship for his children, but they 

 did not like the sea, neither could they sail a ship, 

 nor would they learn. A man built a fruit-farm 

 for his children, but they did not like fruit-farms, 

 could not run one, nor would they learn. There 

 are children who like neither sea nor land. Yet 

 there are many farmers and sailors, — ^but sailors 

 on the sea and fruit-growers on the land. 



No parent, even the wisest, can account for the 

 tastes of his child. The mother explains that 

 perversity is inherited on the father's side; the 

 father, on the mother's side ; aunts, uncles, cousins, 

 are cited. Nor can the wisest child explain the 

 tastes of his parents, for it is a wise son that knows 

 his own father. After all explanations have been 

 made, there remains between parents and children 

 a great gulf fixed, which cannot be bridged by the 



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