80 MY FARM. 



not be ; if the latter, and he tave no capacity to con- 

 vert into available workers, such motley materials, 

 the sooner you discharge him the better ; but if he 

 have this capacity, and is, besides, so far cognizant of ' 

 your ownership, as not to take offence at your pres- 

 ence, and to permit of your suggestions cherish 

 him ; he has rare virtues. 



From the hints I have already dropped in regard 

 to the qualities and characteristics of the available 

 "milkmaids" and ploughmen, it will naturally be 

 inferred that I would not be anxious to entertain a 

 large squad of such, under the low-browed ceilings 

 of the country home I have described. 



And here comes under observation that romanti- 

 cism about equality of condition and of tastes, which 

 many kindly and poetically-disposed persous are in- 

 clined to engraft upon their ideal of the farm life. 

 There is, indeed, a current misjudgment on this head, 

 which is quite common, and which the exaggerated 

 tone of rural literature generally, from Virgil down, 

 has greatly encouraged. The rural writers dodge all 

 the dirty work of the farm, and regale us with tho 

 odors of the new-mown hay. The plain truth is, 

 however, that if a man perspires largely in a corn- 

 field of a dusty day, and washes hastily in the horse 

 trough, and eats in shirt sleeves thnt date their clean! i 

 ness three days back, and loves fat pork and cabbago 



