The sea coast echo., 1908-03-14
ON g An ABANDONED FARM. =
THE EXPERIMENT HAS BEEN An
uNMlsTAKABLE SUCCESS.

THE EXPERIMENT. HAS BEEN AN
UNMlsTAKAHLE SUCCESS
The Servant QUESTION, Marketing. Means
OF Transportation and Other Practical
Matters General Scramble For Aban-
doned Lands Predicted.
William Henry Bishop tells IN the
Centary of his fortunes in a new coun-
try home.
/ shall touch briefly on the practical
aspects of the case. | had feared at
first to have to spend half my time nuf-
rying to the market-town to provision
the family, and | thought it worth dong
even then. But, quite to the contrary,
the housekeeping has proved to be even
easier than in town. This is much due
10 the daily stage. Though lumber
ing, slow conveyance for travel or tor
bringing out ones friends to the farm,
it is capital resource for procuring
supplies We signal it by blue pla-
card swung out of the window and 1t
stops under our maple-trees by seven IN
the morning. The amiable driver takes
a prepared list, AMI he is back again be-
fore noon. bringing, say, meat from the
butcher's-and of excellent quality, too,
even by town standards-fruit and con-
fectionery. new broom and some cot
ton cloth for the servant, embroidery
thread for the mistress, light lumber and
cans of paint for this deponent, and a
drum for the son of the house. For
such miscellaneous shopping his own
charge is about 10 cents. The stage
driver is the Mercury, the special pro-
vidence, of the dwellers along his line.
An old woman awaits to give him
huckleberries to sell, another hands up
an old saucepan to be soldered. The
complete history of one of his trips
would make an instructive and amusing
compendium OF rural existence. Be
sides this resource, other butchers, bak-
ers, fsh-n1en and fruit-men, too, drive
by, on certain days of the week, jingle
their little bells at our door, and awai!
Our pleasure.
The servant question is often alleged
as one of the drawbacks TO country
life, but here again, judging from, Our
experience and observation, we are
obliged to think the dread is c>agger-
ated. Our own domestic has followed
our fortunes throughout Mora ha:
plenty of merits, to which l llete gladly
pay tribute, but she cannot be greatly
different from her kind and yet, so fal
from being discontented or "loncs ,me,
she shows and declares great satisfac.
ton with the new life and with the re.
spite from that of the city. She likes
to compare the way things are don,
here with that of her farmhouse home
in Ireland (to the great advantage o.
the latter). 1t is pleasure to set
ping ripe raspberries into her mouth
or sitting in the orchard with her laI
full of apples; and if the kitchen firt
were not so hot-though the next time
| am going to try one of the paten
stoves that go with oil or gasoline
she would get as much benefit out of i
all as the rest of us. Thus far ar
epidemic of good health has prevailed
among us all, and we have no doctor
bills to pay.
Our experiment has been an unmis
taxable success; the life is agreeable, il
is healthful, and it is cheap. You have
noticed that the one conclusion reached
by nearly all persons who have passed
their summer at the usual boarding.
house, hotel, or hired cottage, is thai
they never want to 60 to that place
again. We do not say that and we dc
not think it. We keep the farm much
in mind in the winter-time, we talk il
over with pleasure, we recall how we
used to watch the birds there, and the
hrefies, and those larger frefies, the
stars, and we are anxious to get back
to it at the earliest moment.
Such is what one of the improved
methods of transportation has done for
us. AS they become more common
they must influence immensely the fill
ing up of the farms with summer resi-
dents Perhaps, indeed, the next step
may be a general scramble for these
farms, and the call upon those who
have not read the signs OF the times
and seized the occasion by the forelock
to pay much higher prices than those
that have hitherto prevailed.
We won our country home, so to ex-
press it, by the bicycle, but we rather
expect to have to hold it by the auto
mobile, unless it be by the trolley for
already they talk of link to connect
the two systems above and below us
Why will not some one bring out a
motor carriage, for two persons,-an
a third light one at a pinch,-costlng
not much above two hundred dollars
and capable of being slowed away in
small quarters? Such conveyance is
bound to come sooner or later. Why
not give it to us sooner and not later
Suicide in Childhood.