"You'd have to leave the farm here unless the Government would quarter some troops here for your accommodation. In case of war, you might arrange with the enemy to come to Kentucky and attack you where you would be comfortable." The future officer of his country did not smile at this: his manner seemed to indicate that such a concession might not be so absurd. He did not budge from his position:-- "I'd rather do something that would let me live here." "You could live here and study law: some of the greatest members of the Kentucky bar have been farmers. You could live here and practise law in the country seat." "Suppose I studied law and then some day I were called to the Supreme Bench: wouldn't that take me away?" "It might take you away unless the Supreme Court would get down from its Bench and come and sit on your bench--always to accommodate you." "I don't know about law: I'll have to think: law _does_ make you think!" "There is the pulpit: some of the greatest Kentucky divines have been bluegrass farmers--though I've always wished that they wouldn't call themselves divines. It's more than Christ did!" "The pulpit! And then all my life I'd be thinking of other people's faults and failings. A fine time I'd have, trying to chase my friends to hell." The next suggestion followed in due order. "There's Oratory; some of the great Kentucky orators have been bluegrass farmers. There is Southern Oratory." "Oratory--where would I get my gas?" "Manufacture it. It always has to be manufactured. The consumer always manufactures." "If I went in for oratory, you _know_ I'd come out in Congress; you know they always do: then no farm for me again." "That is, unless--you know, Congress might adjourn and hold its sessions--that same idea--to accommodate you--!" "I'd like to be a soldier and I'd like to be a farmer, if I could get the two professions together." "They went together regularly in pioneer Kentucky. The soldiers were farmers and the farmers were soldiers." "And then if I could be a doctor. That's what I'd like best. To be a soldier and a farmer and a doctor." "Men were all three in pioneer Kentucky. During the period of Indian wars the Kentucky farmer and soldier, who was the border scout, was also sometimes the scout of Æsculapius." "Æsculapius--who was he? Trotter, runner, or pacer?" "He set the pace: you might call him a pacer." * * * * * What a sense of deep peace and security and privacy there was in the two being thus free to talk together of life and the world--in that womanless house! No woman sitting beside the fire to interject herself and pull things her way; or to sit by without a sign--and pull things her way afterwards--without a sign. The physical comfort of the night, and the rain, and the snug hearth awoke a desire for more confidences.