72 LIBERTY AND A LIVING. 



at the least one hundred dollars, and this is 

 sport, as many city men will admit, and none 

 the less sport because done week after week, 

 and not during a few days' escape from the 

 city. 



I still remember with something like enthu- 

 siasm the impression that the famous book 

 much ridiculed but nevertheless of serious value 

 to so many persons " Ten Acres Enough," 

 made upon me many years ago. At the time 

 when I came across it by chance I was very 

 tired of city life, of late hours and long hours, 

 of nervous strain, of incessant work with few 

 breathing spells. My routine at that time con- 

 sisted of steady labor from nine o'clock in the 

 morning until twelve o'clock at night with very 

 few intervals for rest and recreation. And then it 

 often occurred that work which had to be done 

 took me out of bed long before daylight. Four 

 years of this sort of drudgery with very small 

 prospects of release in the future or of re- 

 ward which would have made such toil bear- 

 able, often caused me to turn over in my mind 

 whether there was not some avenue of escape. 

 As country pursuits had always had a fascina- 

 tion for me from childhood, I had heard more 



