tin's experiments with irrigation and fertilizer,
regarding his attempts as the impractical theories of a fanatic. Of youth,
Sefton Falls contained only a scattering, the more enterprising young men
having gone either to the city or to the War.

Thus bereft of friends of his own sex, and turned back from a professional
or a soldier's career by Duty's flaming sword, Martin reverted to his own
home for comradeship. But here, alas, he was again disappointed.

Mary, Eliza, and Jane were not of a type to fill the void in his life that
he sought to have filled. It would be unfair to say he had not a warm
regard for his sisters, for he was a person of inherent loyalty, and ties
of blood meant much to him. Had he not sacrificed his own dreams that his
family might retain their old home? Nevertheless one may have a
deep-rooted affection for one's kin and yet not find them congenial; and
Martin was compelled to acknowledge that Mary, Eliza and Jane--estimable
women as they were--had many fundamental characteristics that were quite
out of harmony with his ideals of life. It was possible their faults were
peculiar to the entire feminine race. He was not prepared to say, since
his knowledge of the sex had never extended beyond the sill of his own
doorway. But whether general or particular, the truth remained that the
mental horizon of his sisters, bounded as it was by the four walls of the
kitchen and such portion of the outside world as could be seen from its
windows, was pitiably narrow.

Beyond the round of their daily duties none of the three women had an
interest in life. Over and over again they performed their humdrum tasks
in the same humdrum fashion, arguing over each petty detail of the
time-worn theme until he marveled they could retain a particle of zest
for routine they never varied from year to year.

Reading and experimenting brought a freshness to his work that stimulated
detours into untraveled paths. But Mary, Eliza, and Jane never sought out
the uncharted way. Evidently monotony suited their stolid temperaments; or
if it did not, they never rebelled against it or tried to shake off its
fetters. Matter-of-fact, timid, faithful, capable, middle-aged,--they were
born to be plodders rather than explorers.

Martin admitted that to their undeviating system he owed a great measure
of the comfort and tranquillity of his well-ordered house, and hence he
struggled earnestly not to complain at the bondage that resulted fr