LEAF AND TENDRIL 



thing to turn up. The farmer waits for his harvest 

 after he has sown the seed. The sailor waits for 

 a breeze after he has spread his sail. Much of life 

 is taken up in waiting — fruitful waiting. 



I never have sought wealth, I have been too much 

 absorbed in enjoying the world about me. I had no 

 talent for business anyhow — for the cutthroat com- 

 petition that modern business for the most part is — 

 and probably could not have attained wealth had I 

 desired it. I dare not aver that I had really rather 

 be cheated than to cheat, but I am quite sure I 

 could never knowingly overreach a man, and what 

 chance of success could such a tenderfoot have in 

 the conscienceless struggle for money that goes on 

 in the business world? I am a fairly successful 

 farmer and fruit-grower. I love the soil, I love to 

 see the crops grow and mature, but the marketing 

 of them, the turning of them into money, grinds my 

 soul because of the sense of strife and competition 

 that pervades the air of the market-place. If one 

 could afiford to give one's fruit away, after he had 

 grown it to perfection, to people who would be sure 

 to appreciate it, that would be worth while, and 

 would leave no wounds. But that is what I have in 

 a sense done with my intellectual products. I have 

 not written one book for money (yes, one, and that 

 was a failure); I have written them for love, and 

 the modest sum they have brought me has left no 

 sting. 



256 



