1426 
Oic RURAL NEW-YORKER 
December 28, 1918 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
Christmas is nearly here. At this mo¬ 
ment it looks as if the Hope Farm holi¬ 
day mig-ht be pretty raw as to weather, 
and well done in spirit and cheer. It is 
one of those epelks of mean December 
weather—damp, drizzling and despondent. 
You know how the brown hills stretch 
away in billows of imid, with no sun by 
day or stars by night to give them the 
sparkle and smile which we think Christ¬ 
mas ought to bring. Perhaps you have 
been expecting a visit from some fine old 
friend who, in years before, has always 
come, jovial, hopeful, full of a strength 
and happy power which lifts you up out 
of the meanne.ss and trouble of common 
life. You look forward to his coming as 
a sort of spiritual tonic. When he does 
come you find a sour, grumbling, disap¬ 
pointed man ; soaked with gloom and just 
shelling out depression upon all who 
come near him. That is what this late 
December weather seems like at first 
thought as I start my lonely open fire 
and sit down before it. There are two 
wuiys of looking at it. You expected your 
old friend to bring you comfort and 
courage as a Christinas present. Instead 
of bringing the.se things to you he comes 
in need of them, and the effort you make 
to cheer him and bring him back to hap¬ 
piness proves a far greater bles.sing than 
any gift he could have brought. 
1)1 4: 4: Ik ))c 
“Rut W’hat is this about the “lonely 
fire?” What has become of that big 
family? Where is little Rose? Where 
are the apples, the nuts, the books and 
the good cheer? Little Ro«e is upstairs 
in bed tossing about with fever! The last 
time I looked in the door Mother was 
taking her temperature. As she looked at 
the thermometer I read in her face the 
news that the mercury had craw'led up 
too! In the next room the tw’o little 
girls are also burning and tossing. On the 
other side of the passage the largest boy 
is lying on his back gazing up at the wall, 
w'hile Cherry-top, just up from his siege, 
has gone to bed w'eak and tired. All 
this past week the five children have 
been tossing and burning and the house 
has been like a hospital, with five beds 
all occupied. Some of you homekeepers 
W’ill realize the size of Mother’s job. and 
what it has meant to go through with all 
this. They are all coming through right, 
and will be none tbe worse for it, but you 
can imagine w'hat Christmas means when 
Santa Claus comes with a clinical ther¬ 
mometer in his hands instead of draAving 
the lines over his reindeer. I have no 
doubt that this will be read by other 
women who sit by beds whereon lie these 
little fever-stricken forms and to men 
who sit apart thinking, perhaps for the 
first time, what these little children are 
really worth! 
4c 4: ik 4: sic 
As I sit before my fire strange memo¬ 
ries come drifting out of the past. 
Mother has been down for a moment to 
tell me about the children and their cour¬ 
age and patience during the sickness. 
They will all get well and be dancing about 
as usual in a week. Then there comes a 
call from upstairs, and off the good lady 
goes to her ho.spital. Cherry-top came 
for a while to tell me about his prize 
’coon. It seems he has captured the 
biggest ’coon ever seen in Bergen County 
for 16 years! I do not know Avhere the 
figures come from, but I imagine they 
must stand until someone brings another 
coon to beat them. When he gets well 
this young trapper will be after the 
muskrats in great shape. Just now his 
ambition would be to capture the finest 
fur-bearing animals in this country and 
spend his money to have them made into 
a wonderful fur coat for Mother. I think 
the love in it would be even warmer than 
the fur. But when you are just up from 
a sick bed you 'are tired early, and Cher¬ 
ry-top trudges off to bed, leaving me here 
alone. 
4 4c 4! s!c 4: 
What do you suppose came into my mind 
as the flame flickered and twisted around 
the peach roots on the fire? My mind 
went back many, many years to a time 
w’hen I was desperately in need of capital 
to invest in a business. I could not get 
it on terms that I thought were fair. 
Some of us were going down in an ele¬ 
vator in a great New York building, and 
I put up the best face I could over my 
disappointment. So I said: 
“You may think me a poor man with 
no assets or capital. Yet I am good for 
a million at the .soundest bank in the 
world. I have a wife easily worth half 
a million, and no one could buy the 
children for half a million more!” 
In the car with us Avas a big. ponder¬ 
ous man who certainly “looked rich.” He 
listened to me as I talked in this half- 
joking way, and a shadoAV of sadness 
passed over his face. Then he spoke: 
"By God, I mail I could say that — 
aud had the yoods to show!" 
I give you just Avhat he said. It did 
not seem to me like pi-ofanity, but some¬ 
how more like a hopele.ss jirayer from a 
man who in his youth Avould not pay the 
price of real loA^e! What is the price of 
love, anyAvayV I have an idea that 
(Iue.stion will be in the minds of many of 
our people just Avhen this conn's to them. 
Can anyone buy love with money or 
material things? Suppo.se Mother had 
i?.’'i0.0()0 to divide among the.se five chil¬ 
dren, and gave it to them. Would the 
memory of that gift make their love per¬ 
manent? Not if my long observation of 
humanity is correct. They Avould feel 
that .she ought to haA’O given them more. 
Will her tireless care and gentle nursing 
all through these hot and weary days, all 
this long sacrifice and Avearing out of 
the body, buy their loA-e? It will! As 
long as they liA-e they Avill remember it, 
and as the years go on it will seem more 
and more as a pricele.s#; gift. We buy 
love not Avith our money but with our¬ 
selves. Is not that tbe great thought 
which .stirs the Avorld at Christmas? I ; 
can see it very clearly as I sit here alone 
before my fire. The price of love is ser¬ 
vice and sacrifice. We give it to our chil¬ 
dren in the hope that they Avill pass it on 
—not save it as miser.s do. 
Well, we have had a fair year on the 
farm. Prices have been goo<l, and Ave 
cannot complain, yet I think the 100 
S ounds more or less of children which w’e 
ave gained thi.s year Avill out-value all 
the rest. 
4 4 4< 4i 41 
I must say that the greatest Christmas 
present I haA'e had this year is the priv¬ 
ilege of reading William Allen White’s 
neAV book, “In the Heart of a I^ool.” I 
have not read anything in years that has | 
made such an imiiression on me. I do ! 
not know just why that is so. Perhaps 
it is because a part of my own youth Avas 
spent in one of those Western towns such 
as White takes for the scene of his story. 
I hear i>eoplc say this story is long-Avind- 
ed, prosy, disconnected and a \'ery poor 
specimen of art. That may all be true. 
A long wind is a good thing W’hen it 
blows in the direction of home, and surely 
most of the human life avc ob.serve has lit- i 
tie poetry or symmetry or art. To me 
this story comes Avith a Avonderful apjieal, 
for I have seen the starting of a new 
toAvn on a raAv prairie and watched that 
Avild grassy spot groAv up to a tOAvn or 
city. It is a wonderful thing to see. 
Men and women start as pioneers on 
terms of equality; the hard labor of the 
hand gives them apparently equal oppor¬ 
tunity. Then, somehoAV, a.s the years pa.ss 
by, these men and Avomen and their chil¬ 
dren divide into castes or cla.sses. This 
division is not at first made by Avealth, 
but by some social instinct which groups 
them ajiart; no one can tell how. Then, 
as The toAvn prosper.s, money increases, 
and while all Avere suppo.sed to start with 
equal opportunity, the crafty and the 
strong secure the lion’s share, and the 
town divides between rich and poor 
through a divi.siou of the labor proceeds 
from all. Thousands of men w'ent from 
the East to the We.st because the social 
distinctions at the East had become as 
solidly fixed as rocks. They hoped that 
on the big, free prairie.?, all men would 
have an equal chance. Yet their grand¬ 
children found much the same grading of 
society. 
4 :> 4 * He 
White’s book portrays these things with 
a master hand, am’ traces the effect of 
plain Avorship of money and power upon 
human character. Some of the men and 
Avomen pictured in this book are made to 
sin, meanly, brutally and contemptibly, 
and Ave are made to see how selfishne.ss 
masters them and eats up their souls. 
They do not suffer physical punishment 
for this, nor do those Avho are true and 
unselfish receive money or material re¬ 
ward. The reward that ennobles and 
the punishment Avhich degrades must be 
of the spirit and soul. That i.s the 
thought of the book, and I do not see how 
anyone can read it Avithout being stirred. 
It comes to me with great power at this 
Christmas time Avhen the Avorld is so 
eager for “reconstruction” of eociety. 
This war has been fought to “put down 
the mighty from their seats.” Noav peace 
must be made so as to exalt “them of 
low degree.” It seems to me that through 
all the.se years Ave have been going at this 
thing wrong. We cannot overcome a great 
National wrong and evil by practicing lit¬ 
tle personal wrongs and evils ourselves, 
but Ave can oA’ercome the big evil by prac¬ 
ticing the little good in innumerable Avays. 
We must not let the evil at the top AAork 
down into and upon us-—Ave must make 
the good of common, humble lives, work 
up into the evil and Avrong. 
4 4 4*4! 
But the fire is dying, the night is thick 
and dark. I shall sleep on that couch in 
the corner, and I Avant one more look at 
the children before the lights are out. 
Little Rose is hot aud restless. She is so 
tired of lying there, and in her stubborn 
little mind she has determined not to take 
her medicine aud to kick off the clothes. 
Mother can camouflage the medicine by 
mixing it Avith something the child likes, 
but Rose has made up her little mind that 
she is tired of lying there and must get 
up. So I tell her that I may possibly 
meet my old friend Santa Claus on the 
road some day and he Avill ask if I knoAV 
of any good little girls who Avant some¬ 
thing for Christmas. What does little 
Rose Avant? 
The child think.? it over for a moment 
or so and finally the little frown on her 
face changes to a smile. She pulls the 
covers up over her aud pulls Mother’s 
face doAVu to her as she Avhispers: 
“/ just want you!" 
Ah, Santa Claus, you are a Avonder! 
The night is dark and dismal, but the 
boys ought to have a feAV Baldwins to 
eat. I’m going to jiut on my boots, take | 
the lantern and go to the concrete cellar 
for apples before I “turn in.” The neAV 
dog is outside waiting to go along Avith 
me. n. av. c. 
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