MY FARM OF EDGEWOOD 



the subject, and while, as in the case of the 

 red-bearded German, there was a sort of mag- 

 netism that bound me to outer acquiescence, 

 at the same time all my inner feeling was 

 kindled into open revolt against the man's pre- 

 sumption, and his turnips, and his lines of cab- 

 bages, and his poplars, and near breadth of sea. 

 He did not sell to me; but I have no doubt 

 that he sold; I have no doubt that he made 

 money by his turnips, and more money by the 

 sale of his land ; and it would not surprise me 

 to see him some day, if I go in that direction, 

 speaker of the house of representatives in the 

 State of Iowa, or Minnesota. There are men 

 who carry in thdr presuming, restless energy 

 the brand of success — not always an enviable 

 one, still less frequently a moral one, but al- 

 ways palpable and noisy. Such a man makes 

 capital fight with danger of all sorts ; he knows 

 no yielding to fatigues — to any natural obsta- 

 cles, or to conscience. It is hard to conceive 

 of him as dying, without a sharp and nervous 

 protest, which seems conclusive to his own 

 judgment, against the absurd dispensations of 

 Providence. Who does not see faces every 

 day, whose eager, impassioned unrest is ut- 

 terly irreconcilable with the calm long sleep 

 we must all fall to at last ? 



36 



