HINDRANCES AND HELPS 



sion. It would be well if harm stopped here. 

 But this huckstering spirit is very leprous to 

 character. It bestializes; it breaks down 

 the trader's own respect for himself, as much 

 as ours. The man who will school himself 

 into the adoption of all manner of disguise- 

 ments about the cow he has to sell, will adopt 

 the same artifices and quibbles about the opin- 

 ion he wishes to force upon your acceptance. 

 Let him mend by showing all the spavins in 

 the next horse he has for sale (there will be 

 some, or he would never sell) ; and his refor- 

 mation is not altogether hopeless. 



THE BRIGHT SIDE 



This far I have been dealing with the shadows 

 — heavily laid on; let me now, with a finer 

 brush, touch in the lights upon my picture. 

 The chemical puzzles, the disappointments, the 

 isolation, the fatigues, the chaffering bargain- 

 ers do not fully describe or give limit to the 

 good old profession of farming. And even 

 when these clouds — hindrances I call them — 

 most accumulate, the kindly sun flashes 

 through, warming all the fields below me into 

 golden green, and a kindly air stirs all the 

 poplars into silver plumes, and I am beguiled 



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