TV 
f 
XL 
A CHILD OF NATURE S 
many bodies to be fed and clothed 
that there was little left for the 
nurture and furnishing of the mind. 
There was no touch of romance in 
the work or the home ; there were 
few books to read, and these, with 
a single exception, had nothing to 
say to the boy who had found that 
another and a finer crop could be 
taken off* the farm, if one knew 
how to harvest it. There was little 
in common between the world in 
which the boy worked and the 
world in which he lived. He passed 
through the first in a kind of dream, 
doing with mechanical fidelity what 
was set as his task ; in the second 
he was alert, eager, expectant, as if 
a moment's inattention might cost 
