104 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



to lose all the fun that he anticipated in trying to stir me 

 up, as he said he was going to. He tried to put me in the 

 place of Mary, the servant girl, but I am not going to let 

 him do it. Mary, like all sensible girls, got engaged to be 

 married. They all mean to. When she went to confession 

 she was full of the new joy, and she had a right to be ; and 

 she could not help confessing to the priest that she had just 

 become engaged to be married. It so happened that in the 

 midst of the conversation she let slip the statement that Pat- 

 rick had kissed her. The priest, smiling behind his eyes, 

 said, * ' Mary, didn't Patrick kiss you more than once ? " Mary 

 understood that the priest was guying her a little, and she 

 said, "I came here to confess and not to boast." Brother 

 Hale wants to make me a confessor with no boasting. I 

 wonder if he knows where I live ? Has he seen from where 

 the New York station stands the success in agriculture in its 

 highest forms where there are as good agricultural opportu- 

 nities as are outdoors ? Does he suppose that I come from 

 that place, with such a man as Brother Willard and some 

 others before him, and say that there are no opportunities in 

 agriculture ? I do not know whether he reads his Bible or 

 not. I begin to doubt it. He is like a piece of red glass. 

 He observes some things and leaves others. He heard some 

 things I said, but did not hear the rest. I say " Godspeed ! " 

 to every young man who has ambition in agriculture. If I 

 had any hair, it would be full of hay-seed. I love the coun- 

 try. I grew up on a farm. I did not go back to the farm 

 because I got so interested in the study of things that per- 

 tain to agriculture that I could not leave it. If I had been 

 called to a large farm, that would have been my place. If I 

 had been as good a citizen and as good a farmer as I had the 

 privilege of being, it would have been a life of success, I 

 have no doubt. 



Mr. S. D. Willard (of Geneva, N. Y.). I have listened 

 with a great deal of interest to Brother Hale and to the 

 others who have spoken. I was particularly interested when 

 Brother Hale hit upon an apple that I am extremely fond of, 

 and I want to say just a word about that which perhaps I 

 should not have said otherwise. Thanksgiving Day, in think- 

 ing of my friends who ought to be taken care of, I happened 



