The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-05-09

elOr' have a place and q stan0iiix. -
established Mftcffell's reputauon ID
lived to a green old age and wrote
much. But it is The Reve11eS q
bachelor" by which he was known.
and it is by this work that MS I&aaffo
will be p~erpetnated. One OF the great
est charms abOut the work-and thero
are many charms-fs that 1t is, as ne
says in the preface to the first edi-
ton, "nOthing more nor less than WHAT
it prctends to be-, q Collection OF thoSc
floating reveries which rom time 70
time drifted across MS BRAIN. . t1ii"'
says Mitchell. II never met with q
bachelor who had not his share OF
such floating visions. n only differ
cThce between us is that / ave tossed
them from me in the shape OF a BOOK.
But to bachelors and benedicts alike
the 1Rcyeries'' will always appeal-tO
the bachelor because in them he can
find set forth in print what he himself
has many times imagined. To the
married man because he al find
there a picture OF what he has full
filled In fact and not in fancy. The
poetic: the play OF imagination Is
f~Orceful and graceful at once. The GEN
eral tone Of the work is not morbfd-
but it is yery sad.
I have a quiet farm house in the
country, a very tumble place to be
sure, where I sometimes go for a day
or two in the winter to loik over the
farm accounts and see that the stock
is thriving. 1t is tenanted by a worthy
enough man of the old NeW England
stamp, and in the little parlor, which
is at one side as you enter the door, l
sit and muse over the wood fire Of
nights, while behind the partition I
a hear my tenant and his wife mui-
tip1ying contrivances to put two babies
~ r1nan T},ic honnnno To ho tho nnlV
house in the world in which l am bona
fide owner, and / take q vast deal OF
comfort in treating it just as l please.
I manage to break some article Of
furniture almost every time l visit it
and il l cannot open the window
readily of a morning l break out a
pane Of glass with my boot.
[ lean against the walls in a very
eld armchair and scarcely fail to
worry such a hole in the plastering as
would set me down for a round charge
for damages in town or make a prim
housewife fret herself into a raging
fever. / laugh aloud When I think
that I am afraid Of neither n nor
the other. As to the fire, I keep the
hearth so hot as to warm half the
cellar below n the whole place De-
tween the jambs roars for hours to-
gether with white flames which 1 sup
ply from q huge pile Of oak and hick-
DRY placed beside the hearth. And
1ToTP 1 SIC ana muse (lOT L am d DdCn-
elor) over past days and what might
nave been.
"A wife," I think-"yes, a wife, and
why" And pray, my dear sir, and
why not-why? Why not doubt, why
not hesitate n why not tremble?
Does q man buy a ticket in a lottery
a poor man whose whole earnings go
into the securing Of the ticket-with-
out ~tremblings, hesitating and doubt
ting? Shall a man who has been
free to chase his ~fancies over all the
world without let or hindrance shut
himself up to marriageship within
four walls called home that are to
claim him, his time, his trouble and
his tears thenceforth forever more
without doubts coming thick and fast
as smoke? And yet l remember. as
7 sit over my fire. remember with deep
longing to bring back the past-to live
1t all over again, perhaps to change it.
I think OF those old loves whose wings
are furled in the abyss of things that
can never be recalled except in
thought and melancholy fancy. Sad it
is but sweet to o into the fire and
bring Jack from the gulf those old
dreams, those old fancies There vas
my earliest love, my little cousin Bella.
We grew up together, and once, when
she fell into the water and nearly
drowned, / remember that as she sat
on her mothers knee afterward [ ran
to her and, throwing my arms around
her, cried out: "Oh, I do love you
Bella" Then there were my school
days and my college day-and
through them all Bella.
Then I see myself upon the ocean,
bound for my youthful travels in for
eign lands and full Of the inspiration
and the a of it all. On board
the ship there was a girl to whom /
was much attracted. Within the float
ing world of a ship sympathies are
narrowed down-they cannot range.
as on land. oyLr a thousand objects.
Hopes and fears seem to knit them
selves pleasantly together upon the
ocean. Each day seems to revive
them: your morning saIutation is like
a welcome after an absence upon the
shore; each good night has the
depth and fullness Of a land fare
we'll" And beauty grows upon the
ocean,.