IQ2 LIBERTY AND A LIVING. 



to say that I have become so infatuated with 

 my hobby as to have lost all sense of propor- 

 tion. I never expected to make a convert ; in 

 fact, I should feel rather uncomfortable if any 

 friend of mine should desert his desk and take 

 to the garden for a living upon my advice. 

 So that I have not been disappointed. At the 

 same time, I have discovered nothing to make 

 me doubt the soundness of my position. I 

 listen to ridicule and argument, endeavoring to 

 give due weight to what I hear. The chief 

 reasons why this desertion of the town is de- 

 nounced as folly may be summed up as follows : 

 (i) The loneliness of the country will become 

 oppressive ; (2) it will be impossible to give my 

 family more than the comforts of a workman's 

 home our living will be plain, our clothes will 

 be unfashionable, our rich neighbors will not 

 call upon us; (3) the children will grow up no 

 better than farmers' children ; (4) in the end 

 there will be a return to town to take up the 

 old life under conditions of greater hardship 

 than ever, years of absence having broken con- 

 nections that might have become profitable 

 with time ; (5) to leave town for good, or prac- 

 tically for good, is unfair to my wife and chil- 



