WAY-SIDE HINTS. 111 



he has none of that exquisitely-wrought satisfaction 

 which belongs to the man who has planted his own 

 trees, who has laid down his own walks, and who 

 has seen, year after year, successive features of beauty 

 in shrub, or flower, or pathway, mature under his 

 ministering hand, and lend their attractions to the 

 cumulating charms of his home. The man of 

 capital, who buys into an established business, 

 where the system is perfected, the trade regular 

 and constant, the details unvaried, may very pos- 

 sibly congratulate himself upon the security of his 

 gains ; but he knows nothing of that ardent and in- 

 toxicating enthralment which belongs to one who 

 has grown up with the business suggested its en- 

 terprises shared its anxieties, and by thought, and 

 struggle, and adventure, made himself a part of its 

 successes. 



A man may enjoy a little complacency in wearing 

 the coat of another, (if he gets it cheap,) but there 

 can hardly be much pride in it. Therefore, I would 

 say to any one who is thoroughly in earnest about 

 a country home make it for yourself. Xenophon, 

 who lived in a time when Greeks were Greeks, 

 advised people in search of a country place to buy 

 of a slatternly and careless farmer, since in that 

 event they might be sure of seeing the worst, 

 and of making their labor and care work the lar- 



