HINDRANCES AND HELPS. 267 



The extent and the manner of their losses, under the 

 engineering abilities of those wiry old gentlemen who 

 drive sharp bargains, is something quite beyond their 

 comprehension. It would be well if harm stopped 

 here. But this huckstering spirit is very leprous to char- 

 acter. It bestializes ; it breaks down the trader's 

 own respect for himself, as much as ours. The man 

 who will school himself into the adoption of all man- 

 ner of disguisements about the cow he has to sell, 

 will adopt the same artifices and quibbles about the 

 opinions he wishes to force upon your acceptance. 

 Let him mend by showing all the spavins in the next 

 horse he has for sale (there will be some, or he would 

 never sell) ; and his reformation is not altogether 

 hopeless. 



The Bright Side. 



rilHUS far I have been dealing with the shadows 

 JL heavily laid on ; let me now, with a finer brush, 

 touch in the lights upon my picture. The chemical 

 puzzles, the disappointments, the isolation, the fa- 

 tigues, the chaffering bargainers do not fully describe 

 or give limit, to the good old profession of farming. 

 And even when these clouds hindrances I call them 

 most accumulate, the kindly sun flashes through, 

 warming all the fields below me into golden green, 

 and a kindly air stirs all the poplars into silver 



