The Fruit-Farm and Old Age 329 



riches the oil-king, as does the ocean-liner, or the 

 dreadnought whose black smoke breathes of burn- 

 ing petroleimi. But the fruit-grower can have no 

 like monopoly of labor. 



If he is laboring for great riches, he is hardening 

 his arteries in vain. Now the struggle for riches 

 is the chief hardener of arteries in any vocation; it 

 is the fatal habit. Not infrequently such harden- 

 ing of the arteries occiu-s early in life, and few who 

 drive fast and ftuious in chase of wealth survive 

 threescore. The precise date is fifty-six; why so 

 fatal I do not know. But necrology tells this 

 perpetual story. Even fruit-growers cease at 

 fifty-six, or younger, if they have quite solidified 

 their hearts, to say nothing of their arteries, by 

 striving for riches. 



Honor, wisdom, love, obedience, troops of friends, 

 distinguish old age, yet we have known aged persons 

 distinguished by other qualities and possessions. 

 We have known old men not wise, but foolish; not 

 serene, but restless; not surrounded by troops of 

 friends, but with difficiilty attended by a hired 

 nurse. Even in the Valley, years do not always 

 bring the philosophic mind. The reason is plain: 

 few men are philosophers; few at any time are 

 wise, at all times serene, or ever attended by troops 

 of friends. Old men are precisely what they have 

 made themselves. The vocation does not change 

 the man. A querulous youth becomes a querulous 

 old man, unless he undergoes a process of elimi- 

 nation. Peach trees cannot do it for him, nor 



