"We must put a border of pinks around the potato-patch, as
Emerson would say, or else the potato-patch is no better than a
field of thistles." Perhaps because the logic of this figure rang a
little false, Sewell hastened to add: "But there are many ways in
which we can prevent the encroachment of those little duties without
being tempted to neglect them, which would be still worse. I have
thought a good deal about the condition of our young men in the
country, and I have sympathised with them in what seems their want
of opportunity, their lack of room for expansion. I have often
wished that I could do something for them--help them in their doubts
and misgivings, and perhaps find some way out of the trouble for
them. I regret this tendency to the cities of the young men from the
country. I am sure that if we could give them some sort of social
and intellectual life at home, they would not be so restless and
dissatisfied."
Sewell felt as if he had been preaching to a dead wall; but now the
wall opened, and a voice came out of it, saying: "You mean something
to occupy their minds?"
"Exactly so!" cried Sewell. "Something to occupy their minds. Now,"
he continued, with a hope of getting into some sort of human
relations with his guest which he had not felt before, "why
shouldn't a young man on a farm take up some scientific study, like
geology, for instance, which makes every inch of earth vocal, every
rock historic, and the waste places social?" Barker looked so
blankly at him that he asked again, "You understand?"
"Yes," said Barker; but having answered Sewell's personal question,
he seemed to feel himself in no wise concerned with the general
inquiry which Sewell had made, and he let it lie where Sewell had
let it drop.
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