204 THE FACE OF THE FIELDS 



probably, is the " woman question " or the round- 

 ness of the " Square Deal ") — except, I say, for 

 a few of such things, I were wholly glad that my 

 lines have fallen unto me in these days, when 

 there are so many long-distant movements on 

 foot ; glad though I can only sit at the roadside 

 and watch the show go by. I can applaud from 

 the roadside. I can watch and dream. To this 

 procession of Conservators, however (and to the 

 anti-tariff crowd), I shall join myself, shall take a 

 hand in saving things by helping to bury every 

 high protectionist and planting a willow sapling 

 on his grave, or by sowing a few " spats " in a gar- 

 den of clams. For here in the opposite direction 

 moves another procession, an endless, countless 

 number that go tramping away toward the desert 

 Future without a bag of needments at their backs, 

 without a staff to stay them in their hands. 



The day of the abandoned farm is past; the 

 time of the adopted, of the adapted, farm has 

 come. We are not going to abandon anything 

 any more, because we are not going to work any- 

 thing to death any more. We shall not abandon 

 even the empty coal mines hereafter, but turn 

 them into mushroom cellars, or to uses yet un- 



