ailroad
reached round the world, I think that I should keep ahead of you; and
as for seeing the country and getting experience of that kind, I should
have to cut your acquaintance altogether.

Such is the universal law, which no man can ever outwit, and with regard
to the railroad even we may say it is as broad as it is long. To make
a railroad round the world available to all mankind is equivalent to
grading the whole surface of the planet. Men have an indistinct notion
that if they keep up this activity of joint stocks and spades long
enough all will at length ride somewhere, in next to no time, and for
nothing; but though a crowd rushes to the depot, and the conductor
shouts "All aboard!" when the smoke is blown away and the vapor
condensed, it will be perceived that a few are riding, but the rest are
run over--and it will be called, and will be, "A melancholy accident."
No doubt they can ride at last who shall have earned their fare, that
is, if they survive so long, but they will probably have lost their
elasticity and desire to travel by that time. This spending of the
best part of one's life earning money in order to enjoy a questionable
liberty during the least valuable part of it reminds me of the
Englishman who went to India to make a fortune first, in order that he
might return to England and live the life of a poet. He should have gone
up garret at once. "What!" exclaim a million Irishmen starting up from
all the shanties in the land, "is not this railroad which we have built
a good thing?" Yes, I answer, comparatively good, that is, you might
have done worse; but I wish, as you are brothers of mine, that you could
have spent your time better than digging in this dirt.

Before I finished my house, wishing to earn ten or twelve dollars by
some honest and agreeable method, in order to meet my unusual expenses,
I planted about two acres and a half of light and sandy soil near it
chiefly with beans, but also a small part with potatoes, corn, peas, and
turnips. The whole lot contains eleven acres, mostly growing up to pines
and hickories, and was sold the preceding season for eight dollars and
eight cents an acre. One farmer said that it was "good for nothing but
to raise cheeping squirrels on." I put no manure whatever on this
land, not being the owner, but merely a squatter, and not expecting to
cultivate so much again, and I did not quite hoe it all once. I got out
several cords of stumps in plowing, which su