80 IDLE DAYS IN PATAGONIA 



the smooth in his life ; and which was most highly 

 valued the good he struggled for or that which 

 came to him in some other way. Even as a child, 

 or as a small boy, assuming that his early years 

 were passed in fairly natural conditions, the 

 knocks and bruises and scratches and stings of in- 

 furiated humble bees he suffered served only to 

 excite a spirit that had something of conscious 

 power and gladness in it ; and in this the child was 

 father to the man. But the subject which specially 

 concerns me just now is the settler's life in some 

 new and rough district ; and as it appears that the 

 greatest, the most real, and in many cases the only 

 pleasures of such an existence are habitually 

 spoken of as pains, the subject is one on which 

 I may be pardoned for dwelling at some 

 length. 



If Mill's doctrine be true, that all our happiness 

 results from delusion, that to one capable of see- 

 ing things as they are life must be an intolerable 

 burden, then it may seem only a cruel kindness to 

 whisper into the ear of the emigrant the warn- 

 ing "That which thou goeth forth to seek thou 

 shalt not find." 



It is not said, be it remembered, that he will 

 not find happiness, which, like the rain and sun- 

 shine, although in more moderate measure, comes 

 alike to all men ; it is only said that the particular 

 form of happiness to which he looks forward will 

 never be his. But one need not fear to whisper 

 the warning, nor even to shout it from the house- 



