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158
Adventures in Contentment
·
David Grayson
153
Of
all
ways
of
escape
I
know,
the
best,
though
it
is
far
from
perfection,
is
the
farm.
There
a
man
may
yield
himself
most
nearly
to
the
quiet
and
orderly
processes
of
nature.
He
may
attain
most
nearly
to
that
equilibrium
between
the
material
and
spiritual,
with
time
for
the
exactions
of
the
first,
and
leisure
for
the
growth
of
the
second,
which
is
the
ideal
of
life.
In
times
past
most
farming
regions
in
this
country
have
suffered
the
disadvantages
of
isolation,
the
people
have
dwelt
far
distant
from
one
another
and
from
markets,
they
have
had
little
to
stimulate
them
intellectually
or
socially.
Strong
and
peculiar
individuals
and
families
were
often
developed
at
the
expense
of
a
friendly
community
life:
neighbourhood
feuds
were
common.
Country
life
was
marked
with
the
rigidity
of
a
hard
provincialism.
All
this,
however,
is
rapidly
changing.
The
closer
settlement
of
the
land,
the
rural
delivery
of
mails
(the
morning
newspaper
reaches
the
tin
box
at
the
end
of
my
lane
at
noon),
the
farmer's
telephone,
the
spreading
country
trolleys,
more
schools
and
churches,
and
cheaper
railroad
rates,
have
all
helped
to
bring
the
farmer's
life
well
within
the
stimulating
currents
of
world
thought
without
robbing
it
of
its
ancient
advantages.
And
those
advantages
are
incalculable:
Time
first
for
thought
and
reflection
(narrow
streams
cut
deep)
leading
to
the
growth
of
a
sturdy
freedom
of
action--which
is,
indeed,
a
natural
characteristic
of
the
man
who
has
his
feet
firmly
planted
upon
his
own
land.
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