50 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



activity, and ambition, and force, and the good looks, moreover, 

 of our people, have led them into enterprises of every descrip- 

 tion, which promise liberal and easy rewards. Our people are 

 what is usually termed " smart ; " the boys and girls are full 

 of energy, and the parents behold with fond pride their children 

 launching out into the busy world, peopling counting-rooms, 

 pulpits, school-houses, factories, with quick-witted and busy 

 occupants. I remember in early life, when I had just begun 

 to look about me for occupation, when I had finished, as it is 

 called, the education which my good father gave me, I started 

 from my native village with my books and the horse and car- 

 riage with which I had been provided, to offer my services as 

 a physician, to the sick and suffering in a town not far from 

 Boston. It was a beautiful summer afternoon, and as I went 

 on pondering upon my prospects, I overtook a boy barefooted, 

 his bundle on his back, and his shoes in his hand, trudging on 

 also in search of fortune. We were more than twenty miles 

 from the great city, and I asked him to share my carriage with 

 me on the journey. He said he had walked from the Penobscot 

 River, was the oldest son of a farmer who had ten children, 

 had heard that Franklin was a printer, and had left the old 

 farm to enter upon that path to greatness, which he found had 

 been traveled so successfully by that great patriot and philoso- 

 pher. As we passed through the villages on the road, he 

 informed me of their population and their industrial interests. 

 He had read but few books, and these he knew almost by heart. 

 His courage was great, and the only tear he had shed on all that 

 long and weary journey, was that which he dropped as he 

 turned upon the last " commanding hill " to look at his home 

 with all its fond associations. I took him to Boston and intro- 

 duced him to a printing office. He went his way and I went 

 mine ; and I have often thought that I might be at this day 

 admiring the high position of this very boy, whose name I have 

 long since forgotten. Do you suppose this boy left his home 

 because it was distasteful to him, or the farm because he dis- 

 liked it ? Not so. But you may learn from this example why 

 farming has periods of decline in New England. It is because 

 the young men born on our farms are compelled to seek a 

 living elsewhere, both by the limited pecuniary means of their 

 fathers, and by their own ambition. 



