WHAT WE LOSE AND WHAT WE GAIN. 193 



dren, even if I do find pleasure and profit 

 myself in such a step. It is implied that life 

 without new bonnets is not worth living to a 

 woman, and that children may grow up to be 

 young savages. In the following pages I try 

 to answer these objections. Whether or not I 

 succeed in convincing any one, I am sure that 

 they rest upon a wholly false estimate of the 

 value of city life and upon the equally false 

 notion to the effect that intellectual growth 

 cannot take place far from great cities. One of 

 my acquaintances to whom I announced one 

 day that I hoped never again to spend more 

 than ten weeks of the year in the city, said to 

 me : " How do you get on without society ? 

 In summer you may have city friends glad to 

 share your bluefish and honey for a few weeks, 

 but the rest of the year before July and after 

 September it must be lonely enough to drive 

 you crazy." 



So I must hear the talk of the town in order 

 to be happy ? Seriously, I do not believe that 

 from one end of the week to the other passed 

 in the very heart of the city's turmoil, working 

 for many hours in a busy newspaper office 

 the very place where interesting talk is sup- 



