2i6 An American Fruit-Farm 



dominant qualities and elements. This, too, is a 

 survival. So Nature wins whatever man does. 



We want our children to live in comfort, not 

 to say in afifiuence, and so we labor for them. 

 We make a fruit-farm for them, planting orchards 

 and vineyards. Possibly our family runs to sons- 

 in-law, but we labor on, hoping for the best, and 

 hugging to our hearts the motto, *^a rose by any 

 other name will smell as sweet.*' But whether 

 we have sons or sons-in-law^ they have their own 

 ideals. It is the fruit-farm as a commercial article 

 that may interest them, — ^not as a living organism, 

 or as a home. We would have our children live 

 in the security of the old homestead; they yearn 

 to live anywhere else; or, possibly, the restless sea- 

 son of life over, one of them — ^son or son-in-law — 

 takes the homestead as his portion and settles 

 down to the solution of that common problem, 

 ''What shall I do for a living? " If he can discover 

 nothing preferable, he remains on the farm. Is 

 his estimate of its value his estimate of associa- 

 tions or of possible profits? His estimate of its 

 value may be of emotions more justly to be 

 accredited to the world-at-large. He may look 

 upon the whole world as only a large fruit-farm, 

 and this his comer to be his refuge and his home. 



Have you ever observed a fledgling leave the nest? 

 It seems oblivious of dangers. It flies off boldly 

 and alights in front of the cat, or in a tub of water, 

 or is helplessly enmeshed amidst a stubborn brush- 

 heap. If it alights in your hands, it looks at you as 



