The Country Folk 21 



"No greater error could be made, by men 

 of intelligence, than to cry abandoned farms 



when abandoned brains is meant. L is 



a beautiful, fertile valley. The neglected farms 

 are effect, not cause. The abandoned church 

 and the abandoned-school-houses are standing 

 directly in the way of rural progress and all 

 the efforts of agricultural teachers cannot 

 overcome the loud paternalism of these two 

 powerful obsolete institutions that stand like 

 feudal castles awaiting the dynamite of revel- 

 ation. 



"But, after all is told— mark this! Out of 

 that 'God forsaken' town have come the best 

 men, the most sterling characters (independ- 

 ent of their financial troubles) that I have ever 

 known. The happiest years of my life were 

 spent there. My little girl's fine father was 

 born and reared there. The world has its com- 

 pensations. I know and love these people, and 

 the most impressive picture I will ever have of 

 the great Field Shepherd with his people hov- 

 ering about him, is outlined by a faded wall in 

 that farming town." 



