112 CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FARM. 



" Not if all I have in the world depended on it ! I 

 never learnt the alphabet ! " 



" Thank you, my young friend that's an honest 

 answer. Now observe : you are going to pledge ' all 

 you have in the world/ and all that Somebody else 

 has too that you can farm ; and you've never learnt 

 the alphabet of that ! The task you see before you 

 in that book, and think so difficult, is but the acquire- 

 ment of a few years; the other is the labour of a 

 life of many lives and not learnt yet. I'm not 

 joking, believe me. I speak seriously; I've burnt 

 daylight and candlelight a fair share, over both. 

 Why do you think why does everybody think that 

 he can farm without having learnt how ; that agricul- 

 ture (if you like that word best) is an exception to 

 every other human labour or pursuit, a contradiction 

 to all Natural Law, and will bring a livelihood with- 

 out study, cost or apprenticeship : that to be able to 

 gabble over the pet jargon about the ignorance of our 

 forefathers 



The old Chronicler was warming up and beginning 

 to lurch about in his chair like a grain-laden Dutch- 

 man clearing out of harbour; but a look of some- 

 tiling in the other's face just happened to catch his 

 eye a look that somehow can break down and go 



