more _attractive_ for both
boys and girls, and would be divested of that naked and dismal gloom and
dryness which now drive so much of the best farmer blood of the whole
country to work-benches and counters,--to any position, in fact, which
promises relief from the stifling isolation of the country.

While conceding that, just as a cabinet-maker would make more money if
he lived in his back shop, and had little thought from early dawn until
late evening except for his work, so the farmer may make more money if
he lives on his farm than if he lives at a distance, still it must be
said that the difference in profit is by no means so great as would be
supposed.

It may be fairly assumed, that, at least in the more thickly settled
farming regions at the East, the average distance at which farmers live
from the nearest centre of population that supplies their "shopping,"
and from church, is not less than three miles. The visiting acquaintance
of the family is nearly or quite as remote; and there is, altogether, so
much driving to be done, as to make it necessary to keep a decent
carriage and horses, and to supply a certain amount of extra horse
service. Indeed, among those who are tolerably well off it would be
moderate to set down the total services of one good horse as needed to
supply the family's demand for transportation.

Then, too, the need of the farmer himself to go to town to sell and to
buy, to get repairs and information, and (a much more generally
gratified taste than he would always care to confess to his wife) to
satisfy his craving after intercourse with his kind,--who shall estimate
the aggregate of all this travel, or even of that part of it which,
under the pretext of business, is really only an habitual going for
gossip? All of this driving is confined to no season; it is
perennial,--in good weather and in bad,--and it costs an amount of time
and money that few farmers would like to put down in black and white,
and charge to their expense accounts. It would form one of the most
serious items of their budget.

Did the farmer live in a pleasant and attractive village, among
neighbors and friends, nearly all of this driving would be saved. The
appliances for the family's pleasure-driving might be entirely done away
with, for the wife and daughters would gladly exchange the means for
occasional visiting and for distant shopping, for an agreeable circle of
friends near at hand and a good village store and