PORTRAITS IN INK 



I. THE FARMER 



A FARMER finds his best recreation in the woods 

 and waters, with gun and rod, in the few respites 

 that are given him from the toil whereby he con- 

 quers a livelihood from the soil. 



There is a break in the dull round of labor when 

 planting is done and hoeing time not yet come, 

 when he goes a-fishing after his own fashion, and 

 he deems the day the less ill spent if he bring home 

 a catch that serves to break the monotonous fare 

 of a farmer's table. Then there are days in haying 

 when he follows the time-honored advice, "When 

 it rains too hard to work, go a-fishing," for he can- 

 not choose his days, only make the most of such as 

 come to him. The day laborers that he hires have 

 a freer choice than he, between work and pastime, 

 and while he toils in the sun, he sees the gentleman 

 angler and the market-fisherman plying their rods 

 on his own stream, and hears the guns untimely 

 thinning the broods of woodcock in his own alder 

 copses. 



Of a summer Sunday he strolls out to the wood- 

 side pasture and watches a fox and her cubs at 

 play about the threshold of their underground 

 home, or if he fears the raid of some bounty- 



