The citizen. [volume] (Berea, Ky.) 1899-1958, 1908-03-26


a living the opportunities for rehec-
ton and contemplation are so much
the more in evidence.
About the first thing a person real
ICES who has gone from particularly
active life in the cities, to the seclu-
sion of country life. is that he has
been going at a fierce speed. Like a
top in mid-career; upright smooth in
motion to the observer. yet spinning
at a very high tension. You may
miss the daily papers for time; the
question of what they are doing in Eu-
rope may still have lingering inter
est to you. The sound OF distant
strife may yet hold a far-off sea-shell
murmur to your ears, and for a few
days it will be in a rather hazy
mood that you look at the hills and
the pastures. the clouds and the sun
sets. There is a newness about IL
not at all unpleasant, but you are not
yet adjusted to the present surround
ings. Gradually and almost imper-
ceptibly you commence TO slide into
the grooves of another life. The
echoes and lights of the city fade
away. your friends drop off in their
correspondence, your relatives are
more and more infrequent in their re-
sponses TO your letters, stray newspa-
pers chronicling the achievements of
your professional or business asso-
ciates come less often by the rural
delivery, you know and feel that you
have loosened your hold of society"
commerce. art" the clubs, and
other artificialities of modern city
life, and that you are buried on a
farm" as your former acquaintances
would put it.
They are still going at lightning
speed. They are pursuing the will
o'-the-wisp happiness, and as they fg-
ure II, they are succeeding more or
less. But they have a hunted look. IL
you happen to come to town after a
year, say. and their laughter sounds
somewhat hollow to the ear.
Should they come to visit you, as
likely as not they will balance on the
extreme edge of your chairs and say
don't it get awfully lonesome out
here?" They are perfectly honest in
this view of the situation, and the
green sweep of fields and meadows,
the horizon hung with cloudland
glories and framed with never SO glo-
rious a sunset would seem infinitely
less attractive to them than a merry
go-round" and a barker" in front OF
side-show. They consult timetables.
and show a lively interest in the com
ing and going of trains; especially the
going.
But after these incidental visits are
over there remain long days and
starless nights, wide vistas OF budding
and fading seasons which hold for the
sojourneTs on a farm no speech from
others, no eXcitements save the sub
dued pleasures of this more even
tenor of existence. Daily duties take
up little time only, when the family is
made up of three with a baby as the
third party singular" There will
be many hours when you will be alb
solutely alone, If you mean by that
separated from human companionship.
But after all, is it such a calamity
to be islanded in with green seas of
grass and growing corn, with glowing
woods and autumnal beauties, with
the scent OF a wilderness OF pink
white apple blossoms or even with
bleak fields and verdureless? It did
not seem so with us. There was never
a day of the entire two years when
we felt really lonely. We had our
days for ourselves when we were
alone, and is that often the case in
the cities? So many infinitesimal
strands seem dragging at you in the
towns, to hold you aloof from any
real leisure, any meditative moods, and
close companionship.
You can get acquainted quicker
with your family in the country than
you could on a desert island.
In the country you get time to
think, and you wonder how you did
so much business in the city and saw
so many people and went through so
much stress and storm without ever
giving IL single thought. Gradually
the tangles In your brain get straight
eneDd out. and you can see, amusedly
that what is known as the strenu-
Gus life" has its wild absurdities. I'm
agine tree leading strenuous life;
or a star? Nature builds her edi-
fees with beauty and strength, with
gradual unfolding and symmetrical
outlines. Men build quickly, except
as in the pyramids, and their struc-
lures tumble to the ground. Nature
has no ruins amid her temples.
We were alone with the sweep of a
beautiful country about US: with bird
life. PLAINTIFF, tree-life, prolific and
inexhaustible at our very doors. We
were alone with historic associations
in the river close by, with its van
ished warriors and French and Span
Ish explorers dimly seen In the fading
past. We were alone with the sea
sons, the fire of spring. the roses and
fruitage OF summer. the scarlet and
gold pageantry of autumn, the wild
winds and the star-blazing skies of
wintry nights. We were alone with
our books and our music. the baby and
ourselves. and 1t was like touching the