the house drain--in
fact, every necessary out-building--is in plain sight to the public, on
the sunny side of the house, or as near the front of it as is possible
for circumstances to permit. The airs of summer and of autumn come to
the delighted senses of the residents 'impregnated with the incense' of
these sweet surroundings, which, like Gray's unseen flower, are not
destined

'To waste their sweetness on the desert air.'

And who are the delighted occupants of this charming spot? The external
appearance and condition of things too sadly betray their character. The
man is coarse and vulgar in speech and in manners; untidy, careless, and
uncleanly in person and dress; ignorant, lazy, and perhaps intemperate,
with no thought beyond the gratification of his bodily wants and
desires. Slang words and obscene are his daily vocabulary; selfishness
his best-developed trait, and want the only incentive for his labor. His
partner is like unto him, or worse, either by nature or association.
Without taste, modesty, good sense, or natural refinement, she
accompanies her dear Silas in his round of life, sympathizing in his
lowness, his common feeling, and his common complaints--slatternly in
her dress, rude in speech, coarse in manner, slovenly in her household
duties. These two creatures, with their children, too often call
themselves farmers, agriculturists, or tillers of the soil. The poet
Cowper well describes them in his poem representing 'the country boors'
gathered together at tithing time at the residence of their country
parson.

These thriftless people complain that they can make no money on their
farms, and but barely a living; and for the very good reason that the
man or woman who attempts to carry on a farm in this way through the
year deserves no money or profit, nor barely a living from such a method
of work.

He was born here. The new soil, at the time his father purchased it,
gave him a living, and a good one, too; but this heir to the ancestral
acres unfortunately married the slatternly daughter of a loafing
neighbor, and their conservatism will not allow them to vary from the
track of cultivation so well worn by his father, and forbids his
learning any other methods, or accepting any new ideas from any source,
though they may be sustained in the practical advantage gained thereby
by the most successful farmers in his town, and may be learned any time
from the Weekly agricultural gazette published at the c