288 



" For our own part we were ignorant. Others told us that 

 on leaving the city we should bid farewell to all that makes 

 life endurable ; that dwellers in the country never rose above 

 the clods in which they delved, or had an idea beyond cows 

 and such things. If one may judge .from the specimens the 

 country sometimes furnished . the city, they were not so far 

 wrong." 



44 It is true, a portion of the agricultural community are so 

 weighed down by toil that they seem but little above their 

 own cattle ; yet, for all that, you will find, in a given num- 

 ber of country people, just as much virtue, refinement, and 

 education as in the same number of city people in the same 

 circumstances in life; no more and no less. The only 

 difference I can see between the town and country is, that in 

 the country there are no veiy poor, no very rich. Human 

 nature is the same everywhere." 



We had quite a lively debate on this point, after which 

 conversation branched off to other matters. A more delight- 

 ful evening we never passed. Our host exhibited her pic- 

 tures, played for us, and lastly loaded us with books to take 

 home and examine at our leisure. As we rose to go, Robert 

 said : 



"Please, Mrs. Jones, may I ask one more question? 

 How happens it that you prefer living in this retired spot, 

 when your wealth and tastes would so naturally lead you to 



