DEVELOPMENT OF A WOMAN GUIDE 267 



Realizing that she had carefully considered all 

 sides of the subject, I waited for her to continue. 

 Her views of homesteading were convincing, as she 

 disclosed them further: 



"A homestead offers infinite opportunities for 

 self-development and enjoyment. Here time is the 

 willing slave rather than the compelling master; 

 here a hobby may be ridden with a reckless aban- 

 don or with a prolonged exactitude impossible in 

 the routine of city life. And, if your leaning is 

 along the line of nature study, fortunate are you, 

 indeed, if you have no other companions than those 

 faithful allies of the brain — keen ears and eyes. 

 Who is there who would not enjoy, for a time at 

 least, the unbroken silences and all-enveloping 

 solitude of a hermit's habitation ? Who would not 

 appreciate an opportunity to allow the mind and 

 heart to travel together on limitless journeys into 

 the past and future, gathering facts, creating fan- 

 cies, that mould and shape new and bigger concep- 

 tions of life?" 



The warm feelings of this woman, whom the 

 world would regard as a self-exile, again and again 

 reminded me of the words of the exile who wrote : 

 "Life's more than breath and the quick round of 

 blood." She is creative and courageous. Her 

 refreshing enthusiasms are coloured with high 

 ideals. Of course she has definite ideas concerning 

 education. She feels that schools are too much 

 given to memorizing and too little to developing the 



