Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1920-07-31
South China Again to the Fore

1t has long beef an acknowledged
fact that the advent of summer board
ers into a rural community drives out
hard to find-to see others playing
while we are working Is hours a day
seems unjust; to SEE others picniclling
in the shady woods while we are can
ming in a heated kitchen seems intol-
cradle. while to see others in cool
summary attire, fresh and attractive
in the evening. when we can only drag
ourselves into a tired bed TO get ready
for another exhausting day, is too
much for the usual country heart; the
iron enters our soul, the spirit of dis
content takes poss ession of US, and we
no longer see the farm as a home, a
safe retreat, but as a place of drudg-
cry. to furnish added pleasures to
those whose cups seem already over
flowing with pleasures, and too fire.
quently we turn from the farm with
its heat and its toll to the city with
its fancied freedom and JOY, leaving
an extra burden of farm work for
those rmaining behind.
The little village of South China, so
small as hardly to be recognized as a
village, has escaped the usual fate.
either from the character Of those
coming to us for their summer holt
day. or from the character of thos e
who have their permanent home here.
We are not envious, one Of the other;
we know that each is superior in his
own line, and we are content that il
should be so; while we look awkwa I'd
on the golf course, our summer friends
are absurd in the hay field while a
tennis racket is ridiculous in our
hands. crow bar is grotesoue in
theirs; we realize too that we are
meeting on unequal grounds; the rest
time. play time. recuperating time of
our friends is the time of cur hardest
work, while our playtime, the winter
season. is the time of their daily con-
finement and dreary toll. Could thew
come to us in the cold months. when
we are Swimming over miles of smooth
ice, or snowshoeing up hill and down
dale, with grace that would seem i'm
possible to the heavy feet of summer.
ei'SS 6dther around our nreS
and pop corn with us and roast apples.
or even sleigh with us behind Dobbin.
the plodding horse of summer. con-
verified into frisky colt with winters
chill! Could they come to US at this
time, they would be as tempted to envy
us as we are to envy them in the sum-
mer. They would refrain, however. a s
we refrain. We have great confidence
IN these summer visitors Of ours, as
theirs has been a work Of building up
rather than Of tearing down.
In so far as they are able they have
united their lives to ours, striving to
tighten our burdens, rather than to add
to them. and it is a lesson in pure
democracy to look over one of our
strawberry fields. where side by side
the summer people are picking with
the native born; the little maid, earn
ing her winter shoes is on the same
row with the college professor; the
district school teacher shares her row
with the successful man of business;
the young girl working for her trous-
seau is shoulder to shoulder with the
worthy divine; scientists, retired mer-
chants, farmers wives and farmers
daughters, all mingle in one merry
group, picking with nimb1e fingers the
luscious berries. all receiving alike at
the end of the work, not the penny a
day of the olden time, but their four