332 An American Fruit-Farm 



risk, it would seem that the supreme determinant 

 is the hope of gain. Hasten not to be rich. He 

 is foolish who heaps up riches, for he does not know 

 who shall scatter them. The life is more than 

 meat. The lilies are clothed more gorgeously than 

 was Solomon in all his glory: ancient sayings, all 

 and doubtless true, once, in very ancient times, 

 but not in these days of peril and struggle for 

 existence! In the Valley these sayings have been 

 current — ^at least on Sundays — ^for more thaa a 

 hundred years. Fruit-growers have heaped up 

 savings only to be scattered by strangers, or wasted 

 by the children for whom they were so painfully 

 saved. Easy come, easy go, is the law of the 

 Valley. To appreciate a fruit-farm, one must 

 make it out of the sweat of his brow. Cost 

 nothing, worth nothing. Build the house a little 

 at a time as you prosper aad it becomes a temple; 

 if an inheritaace, a gift without associations, it 

 means no more to you than a freight-car. The 

 less you have in the house, the more boldly you tear 

 it to pieces; and the more you change it, the more 

 it is yours. 



The fruit-farm is the embodiment of threescore 

 and ten years' labor; it resembles the owner. 

 When it is a living memory it attains its highest 

 value in his eyes. Having lived a lifetime among 

 its trees and vines, he has reformed it many times, 

 so that like a chain it lies in links of construction, 

 and each link is a period of life. Here age reads its 

 diary and every bush and tree is a memory. Here 



