i66 THE FACE OF THE FIELDS 



He has a study and a vineyard. 



Not many men ought to live by the pen alone. 

 A steady diet of inspiration and words is hard 

 on the literary health. The writing should be 

 varied with some good wholesome work, actual 

 hard work for the hands; not so much work, 

 perhaps, as one would find in an eighteen-acre 

 vineyard; yet Mr. Burroughs's eighteen acres 

 have certainly proved no check rather, indeed, 

 a stimulus to his writing. He seems to have 

 gathered a volume out of every acre ; and he 

 seems to have put a good acre into every volume. 

 *' Fresh Fields " is the name of one of the vol- 

 umes, " Leaf and Tendril " of another ; but the 

 freshness of his fields, the leaves and the tendrils 

 of his vineyard, enter into them all. The grapes 

 of the vineyard are in them also. 



Here is a growth of books out of the soil, 

 books that have been trimmed, trained, sprayed, 

 and kept free from rot. Such books may not 

 be altogether according to the public taste; they 

 will keep, however, until the public acquires a 

 better taste. Sound, ripe, fresh, early and late, 

 a full crop ! Has the vineyard anything to do 

 with it ? 



