THE CLAM FARM 203 



tributor of oil, is not one to burn even its parat- 

 flne candles at both ends. There was, perhaps, a 

 wise and beneficent Providence in its organiza- 

 tion, that we might have five gallons for fifty-five 

 cents for our children's sake — a price to preserve 

 the precious fluid for the lamps of coming gen- 

 erations. 



But should the coal and kerosene give out, 

 the clam, I say, need not. The making of Frank- 

 lin coal and Standard Oil, like the making of 

 perfect human character, may be a process re- 

 quiring all eternity, — longer than we can wait, 

 — so that the present deposits may some time 

 fail ; whereas the clam comes to perfection within 

 a summer or two. The coal is a dead deposit; 

 the clam is like the herb, yielding seed, and the 

 fruit tree, yielding fruit after its kind, whose seed 

 is in itself upon the earth. All that the clam re- 

 quires for an endless and an abundant existence 

 is planting and protection, is — conservation. 



Except for my doubts about a real North Pole, 

 my wrath at the Payne-Aldrich Tariff, my dread- 

 ful fears at the vast smallness of our navy (I 

 have a Japanese student in a class of mine !), 

 " and one thing more that may not be " (which, 



