"I talked to old Bull once while he was laying a fence," she said. "He was proud to let me see how cleverly he was doing it, and that it wasn't so easy as it looked. He has been hedging and ditching all his life, and he enjoys it as much as anything he could do." "Yes, I know. That's the sort of work a man can enjoy, with his hands. You're helping nature, and if you learn the ways of nature she helps you. There's never any monotony in nature. She's alive." "When you see people like that, you're apt to be ashamed of yourself for all the things you want to make you contented. Old Bull has brought up a large family on less than half of what I have for a dress allowance. His dear old wife,--I know her too--gets the most out of every penny that he gives her, and he has all he wants at home. There's no anxiety about life when you've been trained to do without things and not to want them." "No, you get your satisfaction out of the things you have, and they are much bigger than the things you do without." "They have enough to eat and drink, and good clothes to wear. They have their family interests, and their friends. They see people they know, and have known all their lives, more easily than people like us do. They hardly ever move out of their village, but the little changes of life from day to day and from week to week, with their work, and their times of leisure, are enough for them." He smiled at her. "It's an idyllic picture," he said. "There are people who will tell you that you won't keep them on the land except by bringing the pleasures of the town to them." She did not hesitate; her ideas seemed to be clearly set. "That's mostly the young people," she said. "I'm only thinking now of the older ones, who really belong to the land. Their interests are in it, and I think it brings them something as near contentment as it is possible to have." "You feel a little like that about it yourself, don't you?" he asked half shyly. She smiled. "I suppose we are generally thinking a little about ourselves when we are talking about other people," she said. "I know how different my life is from theirs--how much more I want to--to keep me quiet. But I know that the more simple I make it, and the more it depends upon what lies around me, the happier I am."