130 CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FARM. 



with which each moment as it passed seemed 

 pregnant ! 



How wise we are, as we look back ! How clear- 

 sightedly we discover each blunder, and its cause ; 

 how surely we believe that here at least and there at 

 least forgive us this once, O Common Sense and 

 Judgment ! we will promise never to be such fools 

 again ! 



Did ever man build a house or farm a farm or 

 even drain a marshy meadow and not feel some 

 touch of this provoking after-wisdom that comes too 

 late, telling of material and money wasted plans 

 insufficiently considered, too hastily accredited 

 tiles mislaid, too shallow or too deep, or in the wrong 

 direction ? In the matter of brick-and-mortar such 

 aftersight is grown a proverb ; and is it otherwise in 

 land ? Let him who has never felt it, cast the first 

 stone : he has known little of Life's learning who 

 has never repeated to himself how true it is that 



Experience is never given, but always bought ; 



and at the top price of the market ! 



But there is this consoling difference between 

 Bricks and Tiles, that is to say, between Building 

 and Farming : that whereas in the former case you 

 always find your cost in having done too much, pro- 



