THE C O U N T It Y HO M E [chapter 



gence, needs very little capital, but can win a decent 

 living out of the soil. We must dread most of all 

 the herding instinct, and any tendency of folk to 

 become unable to live out of elbow contact with 

 their neighbors. My purpose, in fine, is to help 

 you to get acquainted with the trees, bugs, brooks, 

 and birds; to develop a capacity for society with 

 things, and to open that big book whose pages are 

 pastures and forests and meadows, and farm-clad 

 hillsides. We shall have very little to do, or to say, 

 concerning the accumulation of wealth ; but much 

 of the evolution of a simple life, where wealth is of 

 little importance. In the country our first aim is 

 not to amass, put to produce; not so much to spend, 

 as to create. 



[12] 



