38 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



We do not look for elegance and display in the homes of yeo- 

 men, but we do expect and ought to find neatness, refinement 

 and comfort. Simplicity is not incompatible with good taste, 

 in fact it is the highest evidence of it. The true gentleman 

 is simple in his manners, simple in his dress, in his equipage, 

 his house, furnitnre, style of living and in all his fixings. 

 It is the upstarts, the Jim Fisks, the suddenly rich, who want 

 to make a dash. We expect no such snobbery from the tillers 

 of the soil, Avho earn an honest livelihood by patient toil. 

 The farmer, however, is entitled to a comfortable home, and 

 his house should be commodious and tasteful, without being 

 ostentatious and expensive. We have many such in this 

 county, and we would like to mention some of them as model 

 homes, but this would make an invidious distinction. 



With all outward and inward appliances for a comfortable 

 home, we must ever remember that home is where the heart 

 is. A shanty, Avith love in it, is better than a palace filled 

 with envy and strife. We have spoken of our earthly home 

 as a type of our final and blessed abode, but as love is the 

 secret of the joy of heaven, so is it the mainspring of the ex- 

 quisite delights to be found in the circle that surrounds the 

 family board. Not every farmer that builds a spacious and 

 convenient house for his family, succeeds in making that 

 family comfortable. Together with the building of his house 

 he must build himself on the solid foundation of all manly 

 virtues, and together with the culture of his farm he must 

 cultivate all kindly afiections. Nor should these afl'cctions be 

 confined to those of his own household, but extend to his 

 neighbors, and to the whole brotherhood of man. The 

 farmer's home should not only be the trysting-place for chil- 

 dren, grandchildren and relatives, but the seat of refined and 

 generous hospitality. God has made us social beings, and he 

 only enjoys home iu its fullest extent, who there ministers, not 

 only to the wants of his family, but entertains his friends 

 cordially and liberally. In thus laboring for a comfortable 

 home and cultivating all family and social afiections, and ever 

 cherishing gratitude to the Giver of all good, we may confi- 

 dently expect that our homes will foreshadow the perfect bliss 

 of heaven. 



