The Fruit-Farm and Old Age 339 



men worked for a living, now the best player has 

 the largest salary. Then children were seen, not 

 heard; now children only are heard and seen. 

 Then old age was venerable; now, like Mrs. 

 Skewton, it is made up for the day, often falling 

 to pieces if jarred. Then sermons were an hour 

 long; now they are a bore of fifteen minutes, and 

 in summer in the best chiu-ches both sermon and 

 preacher are omitted. Then the father was the 

 head of the house ; now it is the cook. Then men 

 and women grew old among their orchards and their 

 vines and were reverently gathered to their fathers 

 by their children; now the undertaker buries them 

 by electricity and the children telegraph: ** Regrets, 

 previous engagement, but send copy of the will by 

 retiun mail, please. " Then the old faith ; now the 

 new doubt: ever saving then ; ever spending now : 

 paying for the farm then ; mortgaging the farm now : 

 old and yoimg struggling to build the home then; 

 now the young folks living in apartments, and the 

 old folks all alone on the farm. But it is the same 

 old world; only the folks are the latest novelty. 

 Ours is ancient Athens in modem dress: all 

 spending their time in hearing some new thing. 

 That the world is fixed in its ways no one 

 can doubt, and fruit-growers cannot change them. 

 We come ever to the man at last. He grows old 

 despite orchards and vines, but gracefully, with 

 them. He fades as a leaf, but the leaf has grown to 

 perfection during its life of a season. It has kept 

 its cycle. Much has been written as to man's 





