New England bygones . They got from the morning strength for the days burdens,and the peace of twilight lifted these burdens from them. Irecall three men who, all through middle life and far into oldage, morning and night, at unvarying hours, drove their herdsto and from the pastures. Their cows knew them, and, in thevirtue of patience, seemed (piite as human as they. They wereall three grand men, sensible, honest, and carrying weight intown affairs. This humble duty, cheerfully done, did but illus-trate and embellish the childlike simplicity of their lives. There THE FARM. 57 could be no more
New England bygones . They got from the morning strength for the days burdens,and the peace of twilight lifted these burdens from them. Irecall three men who, all through middle life and far into oldage, morning and night, at unvarying hours, drove their herdsto and from the pastures. Their cows knew them, and, in thevirtue of patience, seemed (piite as human as they. They wereall three grand men, sensible, honest, and carrying weight intown affairs. This humble duty, cheerfully done, did but illus-trate and embellish the childlike simplicity of their lives. There THE FARM. 57 could be no more pastoral picture than that of these respectabletarmers plodding along the highway with their cows in the early-brightness of morning. They were literally walking hand in handwith nature. Transplanted into a city, they would have beenpoor in its riches, unfitted for its pursuits and pastimes. Onthe countrv highway they were heirs of the soil; lessees of thelandscapes and sky views; unconscious absorbents of the earths. briohtness and beauty. I know men in liigh places who look backwith keen pleasure to their cow-driving days, wdien the lowingherds used to come across the rocky pastures to meet them, andwho, from these enforced morning and evening walks, grew tobe observers and lovers of nature. I remember with delight mygrandfathers pasture, poor of soil and scanty of herbage; unevenof surface; its hillocks clad with moss and wintergreen; cut in 58 ^^E]V EXGLAXD jnOUXB^. two l)y a clear, liaMiliiig l)rook ; shaded here and there by ehimpsof trees; ragged with rot-ks and ferns and wild shrulis; marshynext to the mill-pond, as well as treacherous, and tangled withflag and bulrushes. Rare old Xew England pasture-lands! Youwere stingy of grass, but you were never-failing in beauty,—that beauty which was revealed to the children, who, next tothe herds, were your true owners. Early in sjiring-time, againstlinuerinu; snow-banks, came beds of blue and white violets: alittle later, hi
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookpublisherphila, bookyear1883
