leasant, that you couldn't hire the boys and
girls to leave it. I would have them work, and work hard, too, but when
their work was over, I would let them have some fun. That is what they
go to the city for. They want amusement and society, and to get into
some kind of a crowd when their work is done. The young men and young
women want to get together, as is only natural. Now that could be done
in the country. If farmers would be contented with smaller profits and
smaller farms, their houses could be nearer together. Their children
would have opportunities of social intercourse, there could be societies
and clubs, and that would tend to a distribution of literature. A farmer
ought to take five or six papers and two or three magazines. He would
find it would pay him in the long run, and there ought to be a law made,
compelling him to go to the post office once a day."

Mr. Maxwell burst out laughing. "And another to make him mend his roads
as well as mend his ways. I tell you Gray, the bad roads would put an
end to all these 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 spe