CHAPTER XIII 



THE FINEST LIFE 



Taking everything into consideration, the farmer's 

 life is the finest possible. There is no other where 

 similar results can be obtained — the same pleasure, 

 comfort, and happiness — for the same outlay. 

 Take for instance a class, common to rural dis- 

 tricts, of farmers working three or four hundred 

 acres. These men, with a capital of one or two 

 thousand pounds would, in a town, be engaged 

 in some business, their daily round of work, 

 pleasures, friends, home, and surroundings, those 

 of countless myriads, and none, I think, would 

 particularly envy them. 



Our farmer, on the other hand, lives in a roomy 

 house, well built, with ample accommodation 

 for stables and outbuildings, standing in its own 

 grounds, and garden. He puts up with paraffin 

 lamps, unless he is very up to date, but generally 

 the sanitary arrangements are good. He is sur- 

 rounded with animal life, has a horse to drive 

 to market, another to ride about the farm or go 

 hunting on, and in the background lurks a groom, 



108 



