COMMUTER'S THANKSGIVING 233 



one yearling heifer, one lovely calf, with nature 

 conspiring to get me a herd of cows ; I have also 

 ten colonies of bees, which are more than any 

 Commuter needs, even if they never swarmed; 

 nor does he need so many coming cows. 



But with only one cow, and only one colony 

 of bees, and only one acre of yard, still how im- 

 possibly inconvenient the life of the Commuter 

 is ! A cow is truly an inconvenience if you care 

 for her yourself an inherent, constitutional, un- 

 exceptional inconvenience are cows and wives if 

 you care for them yourself. A hive of bees is an 

 inconvenience ; a house of your own is an incon- 

 venience, and, according to the figures of many 

 of my business friends, an unwarranted luxury. 

 It is cheaper to rent, they find. " Why not keep 

 your money in your business, where you can turn 

 it ? " they argue. " Real estate is a poor invest- 

 ment generally, so hard to sell, when you want 

 to, without a sacrifice." 



It is all too true. The house, the cow, the 

 children, are all inconvenient. I can buy two 

 quarts of blue Holstein milk of a milkman, 

 typhoid and scarlet-fever germs included, with 

 much less inconvenience than I can make my 



