The Fruit-Farm and the Young Folks 227 



the Valley? "Yes," dreams the boy without 

 interest in vine or tree, "it is anywhere but here!" 

 Here is another chapter of the old, old story: 

 breaking home ties ; leaving the nest ; seeking pas- 

 tures new; going out into the world. Animals and 

 plants have their native regions clearly defined by 

 climate. The spice trees fruit only in the tropics; 

 apples do not grow at the equator. We mark off 

 the zones by the plants which grow within them 

 and the wild beasts which inhabit them. Climate 

 makes prisoners of all living things. Man alone 

 seems the exception in that he carries his climate 

 with him. To him it is food and clothing and so 

 he penetrates the corners of the earth and makes 

 most of it his habitation, and, save as moved by 

 overpowering curiosity, or thirst for fame that 

 comes from triumph over perils of heat at the 

 equator, or of cold at the pole, he migrates always 

 along the line of climate in which he was bom and 

 bred. This is the long story of the movements of 

 nations and of individuals. The New West is the 

 Old East removed a little nearer the setting sun. 

 Even restless youth obeys the great law of mi- 

 gration. He goes whither he can stand the climate ; 

 it is his master and the racial instinct tells him this. 

 He will not contend against perpetual frost or 

 burning heat. He seeks ever to live under familiar 

 skies. Who of us feels at home under strange 

 constellations? Who of us knows what it is to be 

 far from home and see strange stars breaking upon 

 our vision? Restless as youth may be, it knows 



