tain objects have been accomplished and a certain time arrives, 

 they shall retire to a farm. A dream, an illusion, it is with many. 

 They cannot do it, or will not, — an illusion, but a pleasant one. 

 They find that the old harness will not come off so easily as they 

 thought, that the bonds of long use and wont hold them with a 

 firmer grip than they supposed. Comparatively few realize their 

 dream. 



And of those who do realize it or try it, not all succeed in it. 

 To some the new way of life that looked so beautiful and sufficient 

 in the distance, turns out to be too tame and slow. They find in 

 it privations, annoyances, various drawbacks, that were not fore- 

 seen. No earthly condition is perfect, not even this. The ex- 

 periment fails. They are not contented. 



Or perhaps with a shrewd foresight of the possible short coming, 

 they have kept some hold of the old way of hfe, and diversify the 

 monotony of the farm life with some hours weekly or even daily 

 spent amid the operations of State street, or the gossip of the in- 

 surance offices, or the din of the factory, or the odors of the 

 wharf and dock, or the court-house, or the commodities and ac- 

 count books of a silent partnership in trade. And wherever this 

 combination of diverse interests is necessary for producing content 

 in the farm life, and does produce it, why is it not well ? 



To belong to this class of farmers, and to find contentment in 

 it, by whatever means, whether in itself alone or by help of its 

 accompaniments and alteratives, — what condition on earth is so 

 beautiful and desirable ? To us, who are not in it, it looks like the 

 top of the world, the culmination of human well-being. We 

 should covet it if it were not wicked to covet what is our neighbor's. 



The second class of farmers comprises those who from very 

 early life have been inured to the actual labors of the farm, with 

 no other business, or but incidentally, with no habits of hfe but 

 those of the farm-house. As a class, these men are the healthiest 

 and strongest class in the community. Frugal in their ways of 

 life, and generally temperate in meats and drinks, with habits of 

 early rising and regular industry, they become hardy, capable of 

 much endurance and long-lived as a class. Farmers, as a class, 

 are as rich as any other class. Take, for instance, all the property 

 of the mercantile class at a fair appraisal, and deduct from the 



