AN 'APPLICATION.' 117 



Egyptian beans the same you buy at Mark-lane 

 kiln-dried, and all sorts of other plants and vege- 

 tables. Surely you can read it ? ' 



'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 ! 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 ooth. 

 Why do you think why does everybody think 

 that he can farm without having learnt how ! that 

 agriculture (if you like that word best) is an excep- 

 tion to every other human labour or pursuit, a con- 

 tradiction to all Natural Law, and will bring a live- 

 lihood without study, cost, or apprenticeship : that 

 to be able to gabble over the pet jargon about the 

 ' hignorance ' of our forefathers 



The old Chronicler was warming up and begin- 

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



