X 



THE FRUIT-FARM AND OLD AGE 



WISDOM, serenity, — and, Macbeth adds, 

 ''honor, love, obedience, troops of friends," 

 shotdd accompany old age, yet such a galaxy we 

 rarely see. Youth has slight idea of time; age has 

 no other. To youth, age is a port so remote that the 

 voyageur thinks, '' Time enough for that; it is not 

 yet on my chart' ' ; to age, youth has begun a voyage 

 so devious, it is idle to presume to mark it out. 

 Youth is hope, age is memory; youth attracts, age 

 repels. The prince is waiting for the kingdom; the 

 heir, for the estate. ''Who would have thought 

 the old man to have had so much blood in him!*' 

 exclaims Lady Macbeth. "Who would have 

 thought the old man would live so long!" exclaims 

 the son whose life has been only an expense account 

 to his father, who gave more thought to his fruit- 

 farm than to his boy. " Something for my old age," 

 says the man in middle-life who has known the 

 buffetings of fortune. The fear of want and de- 

 pendence makes many a man in the Valley a 

 fruit-farmer. The orchard and the vineyard are 

 safety; a pension between the man and the poor- 



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