fine schemes of yours. Imagine farmers calling on each
other on a dark evening after a spring freshet. I can see them mired and
bogged, and the house a mile ahead of them."

"That is true," said Mr. Harry, "the road question is a serious one. Do
you know how father and I settle it?"

"No," said Mr. Maxwell.

"We got so tired of the whole business, and the farmers around here
spent so much time in discussing the art of roadmaking, as to whether it
should be viewed from the engineering point of view, or the farmers'
practical point of view, and whether we would require this number of
stump extractors or that number, and how many shovels and crushers and
ditchers would be necessary to keep our roads in order, and so on, that
we simply withdrew. We keep our own roads in order. Once a year, father
gets a gang of men and tackles every section of the road that borders
upon our land, and our roads are the best around here. I wish the
government would take up this matter of making roads and settle it. If
we had good, smooth, country roads, such as they have in some parts of
Europe, we would be able to travel comfortably over them all through the
year, and our draught animals would last longer, for they would not have
to expend so much energy in drawing their loads."

* * * * *

CHAPTER XXII

WHAT HAPPENED AT THE TEA TABLE

From my station under Miss Laura's chair, I could see that all the time
Mr. Harry was speaking, Mr. Maxwell, although he spoke rather as if he
was laughing at him, was yet glancing at him admiringly.

When Mr. Harry was silent, he exclaimed, "You are right, you are right,
Gray. With your smooth highways, and plenty of schools, and churches,
and libraries, and meetings for young people, you would make country
life a paradise, and I tell you what you would do, too; you would empty
the slums of the cities. It is the slowness and dullness of country
life, and not their poverty alone, that keep the poor in dirty lanes and
tenement houses. They want stir and amusement, too, poor souls, when
their day's work is over. I believe they would come to the country if it
were made more pleasant for them."

"That is another question," said Mr. Harry, "a burning question in my
mind--the labor and capital one. When I was in New York, Maxwell, I was
in a hospital, and saw a number of men who had been day laborers. Some
of them were old and feeble, and others were young