Why, I feel as though I had been
away sleeping for twenty years, like Rip Van Winkle. When I left
the city there was scarcely an automobile to be seen
anywhere--and now look at them snorting through the streets. I
counted twenty-two passing that corner up there in five minutes
by the clock."
This was a fortunate remark, for I found instantly that the
invasion of the automobile was a matter of tremendous import to
such Knights of Bucephalus as these.
At first the wit interrupted me with amusing remarks, as wits
will, but I soon had him as quiet as the others. For I have found
the things that chiefly interest people are the things they
already know about--provided you show them that these common
things are still mysterious, still miraculous, as indeed they
are.
After a time some one pushed me a stable stool and I sat down
among them, and we had quite a conversation, which finally
developed into an amusing comparison (I wish I had room to repeat
it here) between the city and the country. I told them something
about my farm, how much I enjoyed it, and what a wonderful free
life one had in the country. In this I was really taking an
unfair advantage of them, for I was trading on the fact that
every man, down deep in his heart, has more or less of an
instinct to get back to the soil--at least all outdoor men have.
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