222 LIBERTY AND A LIVING. 



bother with the children and too unfamiliar 

 with them to take much interest in their do- 

 ings. More than half the pleasure that I get 

 out of my country life is due to constant asso- 

 ciation with the children. The boat seldom 

 sails away without three or four of them on 

 board, they are never left behind when we 

 start for a day's outing, they know as much 

 about the garden as I do, and probably to this 

 active open-air life they owe largely their 

 strength and ruddy cheeks. I have tried both 

 ways of life, and whatever may be said in favor 

 of the city so far as adults are concerned, there 

 are no two ways of thinking s*o far as concerns 

 the children. After a few years, when it be- 

 comes necessary to fit them for active life, I 

 suppose that the boys will go to college, and I 

 am not at all afraid of their ability to hold 

 their own and to get all the good that may be 

 obtained by a struggle for wealth if they should 

 choose to strive for it. As to the girls, it may 

 be said that in the wilderness they would grow 

 up ignorant of most accomplishments valued 

 in young women, such as music, painting, etc. 

 But here again, it is a question of home influ- 

 ence. Inasmuch as my girls will hear at home 



