24. A TWENTIETH CENTURY LOVE LETTER 162 25. THE REPLY 171 26. FERN FENWICK ARRIVES AT SOLARIS 179 27. THE FESTIVAL 185 28. THE ORATION 187 29. THE STORY OF GILBERT GERRISH; OR, THE STRENGTH OF THE WEAKEST UNIT 216 30. OUR HERO AND HEROINE DISCUSS AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS 227 31. THE DISCUSSION GROWS MORE INTERESTING 248 32. SOCIAL SOLUTIONS 256 33. SOLARIS SCRIP 270 34. THE INSURANCE OFFERED BY CO-OPERATIVE FARMING 273 35. THE MOTHERS' CLUB 287 36. THE CO-OPERATIVE FARM AS A FACTOR IN THE CAPITAL AND LABOR PROBLEM 299 37. THE CO-OPERATIVE FARM TRIUMPHANT 313 38. THE KINDERGARTEN AT SOLARIS 327 39. AN UNEXPECTED VISITOR 346 40. THE COMING ERA OF GOOD ROADS 362 41. CO-OPERATIVE ETHICS 371 42. RURAL LIFE UNDER THE REIGN OF CO-OPERATION 387 43. A TWENTIETH CENTURY HONEYMOON 416 44. THE NEW CRUSADE 423 SOLARIS FARM. A STORY OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. CHAPTER I. A FARMER'S SON WITH PROGRESSIVE TENDENCIES. One bright summer afternoon, near the close of the month of August, 1905, two young college chums, Fillmore Flagg and George Gaylord, just met after a long separation, were seated on a rustic bench near a well-appointed mountain hotel. The superb view before them was well worthy of their half-hour's silent admiration. Full one thousand feet above the sea stands "Hotel Mount Meenahga" in the heart of the "Shawangunks," a mountain range in the state of New York, famed for its scenic beauty, cool dry air, pure water and commanding elevation. Looking northward a most charming landscape presents itself, a wonderful group of mountain ranges, stretching for seventy-five miles from near the Delaware Water-gap eastward to and including the Alpine peaks of the famous Catskills. Within this lovely semicircle lie the highlands of Ulster, Sullivan and Orange, lifted like seats in some vast amphitheater, tier above tier, while nearer a beautiful mingling of villages and hamlets, broad fields, green woods and silvery water-courses, constitutes a picture of enchanting beauty--a picture constantly changed, shaded and intensified by broad patches of moving shadow and sunlight from a great fleet of fleecy clouds sailing so swiftly, so silently and so majestically across the summer sky.