: Italy and Spain and Turkey and South America,
and our own Gardens of Eden," with a bit of sarcastic smile. "The very
ease of living seems to take the ambition out of one. Well, why
shouldn't it? Even the bees, you know, were demoralized when they found
they did not have to lay up for winter. Wouldn't those people come to be
worse tramps and idlers? I'm sure the poor white trash of the South has
helped itself very little."

"We were talking of concerted effort," interposed
Maverick,--"purchasing a large tract of land, forming a community,
taking different kinds of workmen, and making a success of it. Why
should we not have flourishing towns in Florida, as well as in Kansas?"

"To be sure, to be sure!" nodding his head and tugging at his beard in a
manner that showed he was not a whit convinced. "Then you give up," he
said, "that any thing can be done at home?"

"Any thing done at home?" Jack lifted his level brows, and stared a
little.

"Yes. The going away may all be very well. I tried it in '57; went out
to Indiana with a little money, and tried farming that I didn't know any
thing about, had the ague six months, and then came back poorer
certainly. Now, the thing is just here with a good many of us,--we have
our little homes, and in such times as these, in any hard times, we
couldn't sell for any thing worth while. Then there's many a thing, to a
man or a woman past middle life, that can't be reckoned in dollars and
cents: the home you've made for yourself, the old friends, the church,
even the familiar street you've walked over so often that every
flagstone comes to have a near look."

"But those who have no homes, no strong interests"--

"If I was going to found a colony, I should want a little better stock,"
with a short, dry laugh.

"May be you have a plan?" suggested Maverick good-naturedly.

"Well, I've thought it over a good deal this winter, sitting in the
house with the old lady;" and there came a peculiar far-off look in
Cameron's eye as he studied a figure in the carpet. "If God worked
miracles nowadays, and was to make a dozen or so honest men with a good,
stout share of brains, there might be a little lifting-up of the dull
skies. Take this town, leaving out politics and all that sort. Five
years ago we were prosperous, and there wasn't a prettier town anywhere
about. Good wages were paid, people were thrifty; and I will say it for
David Lawrence, if he was one of your high kind, he was a gentl