The Abandoned Farmer

nk Heaven!—attract Paul's attention, though if the child hadn't been absorbed for the moment in driving a brood of ima

of our offspring as to the real nature of his visit, so he should have known better, but of cour

temporary silence, then I grabbed Paul by the arm, pointing out the fiction that the chickens had escaped around the end of the table into the hall. When he

and it was a relief to see him not only smile, but look as if he would enjoy a hearty laugh. "Don't be alarmed, Mrs. Carton," he said cheerily. "

een spared the ordinary illnesses and accidents of childhood; indeed, so carefully had he been guarded, that at the age of six he had never tasted unboiled water, unsterilized milk or unhygienic bread, and although he had learned to walk upstairs by himself, had never descended alone except when an anxious parent stood breathlessly at the foot of the stairs ready to break a possibl

visions of his dear little incapable feet projecting[Pg 4] out of a water barrel or being mowed off by an overg

we had to sacrifice a few extraneous luxuries in carrying it out, and when she used the word duty I knew that, come what would, we were going to live in the country. Duty is Marion's strong point; mine also, in a sort of second-hand way, for I have learned to obey the dictates of her conscience with an amazing alacrity. With her, the principle involved in the most trivial act is a matter of vital importa

e of one mind from the first, the only difficulty that faced us being the question of

f we make up our minds hard enough it will become possible. We've been talking about t

hat there's no other opening in sight, and as long as I'm doing 'Music and Drama' for the Observer I must stay in

something will happen to let us live where we want to live. And as for the suburbs, it seems to me it would be better to get a real farm in the real country. If we could find a good comfortable

ws, surrounded by ancient shade-trees and a straggling apple-orchard. All these accessories I could appreciate, and, in comparison, an ordinary suburban cottage, one of many others ex

dollars to make the first payment, then we could give a mortgage for the balance and pay i

said, with a merry laugh. "What a lot of money we'd save if I let you carry out a few of your wild schemes! We're not going to raise

proposal," I prot

ess than we pay for this house, and I'm sure we can live more cheaply in the coun

I had imagined, but I reluctantly admitted that Marion's plan might be more economical than m

hing to consider is how much money we

ling of delightful excitement that accompanies the unpacking of a Noah's ark. In fact, I had them arranged on the stat

ed that my wife was gazing at me with a curious expression

g

just thinking about that. I was just calc

her you would rather go in for hor

ut I think a herd of Jerseys w

hat we'd be hopelessly in debt if we started in that way? Why, even if we were wealthy the money would soon be all gone at

ge, and I would profit by their mistakes. I wouldn't borrow five hundred dollars, for instance, to invest in

reach of her infant's grasp; "you're not going to borrow one dollar; you're not going to have a herd of Jerseys; you're not g

smile of feeble intelligence to conceal the fact that I failed to see

Marion, earnestly. "How

s," I replied, in

d two dollars in implements, but no

jected, with a derisive laugh.[Pg 11] "Judge Davi

begin to see now what I mean by deciding

if you keep on, but I don't see how a farm can be made to pay without investing money in it.

who haven't[Pg 12] been brought up on a farm are attacked by an insane belief, at some period of their lives, that they can make money by farming. She says Uncle Philip had made a hundred thousand dollars in the grocery business when he retired and bought a farm. She implored him not to do it, but he persisted, saying there was heaps of money in farming if properly managed, and he could run a farm on business principles and make it pay. But when he died she found he had left only forty thousand dollars for

s taunt about the unlucky mining venture, but the serious recital of the woes of her uncle and aunt moved me to laughter. I jocularly declared I would go around to the

alculating how much money we might be able to spend on the farm we should try to see how much we can do without spending. I am sure that is the rig

cide that I can aff

ld then be clear profit, and you[Pg 14] w

useless—it wou

these contrivances, so the chances are that it would be useless; besi

nipped by the chilling reminders of bygone mistakes that my temperament would allow me to forget was not to be endured. "Marion," I interrupted, hastily,

y about these things, and I know you would have forgotten the Emperor shares long a

vehemence. "It dulls my sensib

head dubiously,

he was looking for the fulfilment of her prediction. As time passed, however, I began to think she had been mistaken, though I did not say so, for I know how annoying it is to have one's mistakes pointed out when one is most keenly conscious of them. Besides, to refrain made me feel magnanimous, and that feeling, perhaps, caused a shade of pitying[Pg 16] magnanimity to creep into my tone when we discussed the project; so Marion, who is intensely suscepti

the giving out of[Pg 17] the theme by the performer had become the signal for the audience to assume an air of intense and exalted intellectual enjoyment, though not one person in a hundred could appreciate the logical development of such a composition or distinguish anything but a confused intermingling of the parts; but the summons from the editor made me regard the matter more seriously. I hurriedly looked over the article to see if I had laid myself ope

and Drama' for two years now," he said musingly, laying down his pen, "and I

tely, afraid of wh

to something that people read with interest, and if they laugh and swear alternately, so much the better. You have a knack of

he meant to be jocular, incredulous of his serio

ace at once. Now it strikes me that farmers don't hanker after instruction in their newspaper—they want to be enterta

g

much about agricul

hills three feet apart or to feed potato bugs on paris green. The main thing is to make the department entertaining, so let yourself go and be as funny as you like, provide

boarders in rows three

armly. "You mightn't be able to draw a better looking pig in a prize competiti

ed me to keep my misgivings to myself. Indeed, though I never boast, I find it difficult to detract from another person's estimate of my knowledge or attainments; it seems less egotistical to smile and look modest than to enlarge upon one's own affairs. There was just one thing that caused me a pang. Marion, in pointing out the advantage it would be to me to have a free hand in writing, casually acknowledged that for a long time she had felt that[Pg 21] criticism was not my forte and that I would write better when I had more scope for my imagination. My pained surprise at this confession moved her to merriment, and she laughingly declared that a woman's vanity was all on the surface, but a man's was unfathomable. Did I answer back? No, I

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