f the Old
Testament; and here is the letter:

As you say, too many people confound farming, with that sordid,
selfish, money-getting game, called "business," whereas, the
farmer's position is administrative, being in a way a dispenser of
the "Mysteries of God," for they are mysteries. Every apple is a
mystery, and every potato is a mystery, and every ear of corn is a
mystery, and every pound of butter is a mystery, and when a "farmer"
is not able to understand these things he is out of place.

The farmer uses the soil and the rains and the snows and the frosts
and the winds and the sun; these are also the implements of the
Almighty, the only tools He uses, and while you were talking that
day, it brought to mind the recollection of an account I once read
of an occurrence which took place in the vicinity of Carlsruhe, in
Germany, about thirty years ago, and I want to tell you about it. An
old man and his two sons, who were laborers on a large farm there,
went out one morning to mow peas, with scythes, as was the method in
use at that time, and soon after they began work, they noticed a
large active man coming along a pathway which bordered the field on
one side, and when he came to where they were, he spoke to them,
very pleasantly, and asked them some questions about their work and
taking the scythe from the hands of the older man he mowed some with
it and finally returned it and went his way. After a time when the
owner of the farm came out to oversee the work they told him of the
occurrence, and asked him if he could tell who the stranger might
be, and he told them that he was Prince Bismarck, the Chancellor of
the empire, who was staying at his country home at Carlsruhe, and
was out for his morning walk, and they were astonished, and the old
man was filled with a great pride, and he felt himself elevated
above all his fellows, and he wouldn't have sold his scythe for half
the money in Germany, and his descendants to this day boast of the
fact that their father and Bismarck mowed with the same scythe. Now
if it was sufficient to stimulate the pride of this old laborer, if
it was sufficient to create for him a private aristocracy, if it was
sufficient to convert that old rusty scythe into a priceless
heirloom to be treasured up and transmitted from father to son, if
it was sufficie