MR. URBAN AND A CO UN TR Y HO USE. 249 



power to uproot in a season all the practices of cen- 

 turies. There is an obstinacy (after all) in God's soil 

 and seed-beds which humiliates the wittiest lecturers 

 or the best adepts at the retort. If he be thoroughly 

 infected, I only counsel modest expectations a proper 

 humanity toward his working cattle, and the ordinary 

 business foresight of keeping a good balance at his 

 bank when the bills come in. 



If he has neither short-horn nor landscape ambi- 

 tion, and is not infected with any mania of drainage, 

 or peat, or Liebig wishing only the grateful shade 

 from trees not subject to the visitations of the curcu- 

 lio, and a sweet bowl of milk to his supper, let him 

 not be too eager to discard the offices of those old- 

 style farmers, who, if not adepts in culture, are 

 adepts in saving. 



Finally, if his rural fantasy is only a short-lived 

 whim that may pass one day if not from his own 

 mind, at least from the more sensitive and demon- 

 strative mind of his help-meet let him buy where he 

 can sell. He may be sure that the trees will lose 

 none of the pleasantness of their leafy rustle if it be 

 spent on ears that listen more eagerly than his own. 

 His porches, his arbors, his walks, his fields will 

 entertain him none the less, if covetous eyes look 

 over the fence at them. There may be something 



very wicked, but there is something very human in 

 11* 



