Hannah Farnham Sawyer Lee

“ I am well aware that my habits of thinking and modes of life are tame and dull, compared to your projects and success;—but we are differently constituted, and while I honor your spirit and enterprise, and do justice to the honest and intelligent business men of your city, I am contented with my own lot, which is that of a farmer, whose object is to earn a competency from his native soil, or, in other words, from ploughing and planting. ”

“ There is music in every accidental sound. How fresh is the air! how unlike the mornings to which I have been accustomed, where the voice of the teamster urging on his over-loaded horse, or the monotonous cry of the fishmonger, disturbed my slumbers! ”

“ Iron-manufactories, nail-manufactories, and saw-mills, were projected, and all was hurry and bustle. One more pang, however, remained for Frances. The sequestered nook she had selected, where her little Charlotte’s remains were deposited,—that spot, so still, so tranquil, so shaded by trees, and so sheltered by valleys, so removed apparently from the tumult of business,—over that very spot, it was found necessary for the rail-road to pass! Strange as it may seem, the worldly father appeared to feel more deeply this innovation than the mother. ”

“ Frances thought the journey had, perhaps, been the cause of the child’s untimely death, and lamented that she had not opposed a measure which she had undertaken solely for its benefit. The death of friends is a calamity that few have not strength enough to bear, if they do not exaggerate their sufferings, by imagining that something was done, or left undone, for which they were responsible. To this nervous state of feeling Frances was peculiarly liable, from her ill health ”

“ In this money-making day, men despise small gains, and yet my own experience tells me they are sufficient for happiness. Great wealth can add but little to our enjoyments; domestic happiness, you will allow, is cheaply bought, as far as money is concerned, and riches cannot add a great deal to our corporeal enjoyment. ”

“ After haying-time, there are usually roads, fences, and stone walls to repair, apples to gather in, and butter to pack down. Though autumn has come, and the harvest is gathered in, you must not suppose our ploughing is over. ”

“ Draper, with enthusiasm. “Nobody knows better than I do, how a noble and cultivated mind may be subjugated by the feverish pursuit of wealth—how little time can be spared to the tranquil pleasures of domestic life, to the home of early affection—” She stopped, and seemed embarrassed.—Howard’s color rose high; there was a pause. At length he said,
“Every situation has its trials; those who best support them are the happiest. But we are growing serious. ”

“ Mr. Draper certainly did not look delighted at this unexpected statement, and began to tremble for his rail-road; but he remained silent.
“You have undoubtedly greatly increased the actual value of Clyde Farm, by mills and manufactories?”
“Certainly I have; but all is in a manner useless without the rail-road as a means of transportation: that will put every thing into complete operation, and make the revenue princely.”
“Then,” said Frances, “I can have no hesitation in making my offer. I will sell this place to you for what you gave for it. ”

“ Spring approached, with its uncertainty of climate; sometimes, the streets were in rivers, and the next day frozen in masses; then came volumes of east wind. Mrs. Draper’s cough returned more frequently than ever, and Charlotte looked too frail for earth. The physician informed Mr. Draper that he considered it positively necessary to remove the invalids to a milder climate, and mentioned Cuba. Mr. Draper, however, decided that an inland journey would be best, and, inconvenient as it was, determined to travel as far as some of the cotton-growing states. ”

“ How I long to have haying-time come! You must ride from the fields with your children, as I do, on a load of hay, when the work of the day is over, and look down upon all the world. O Frances,” added p. 36she, “if we could only persuade your husband to turn farmer, our victory would be complete.”
“It will never be,” said Frances.
“I don’t know that,” replied Charlotte; “he seemed to set very little value on the city residence, and would fain have stripped his elegant rooms to dignify your rustic retreat ”

“ Draper did not arrive at the time he appointed, and Frances often felt the sickness of hope delayed. “Deliver me from such excellent husbands,” said Charlotte to Howard, “who are wasting the best years of their lives in acquiring wealth for their families, and yet never think themselves rich enough. Here is poor Frances, kept in a state of feverish anxiety, when rest and tranquillity are absolutely necessary for the restoration of her health.” ”

“ When we began life, your brother said, if he was ever worth a hundred thousand dollars, p. 20he would retire from business; he now allows himself to be worth much more than that amount, and yet you perceive our homestead becomes too valuable for our own use, because it can be converted to money. All this, however, would be nothing, if I did not see this eager pursuit of gain robbing him of the pleasures of domestic life, of the recreation every father ought to allow himself to receive from the innocent conversation and sports of his children. ”

“ Of all the sources of happiness in this world, overgrown wealth has the least that is real; and from my own observation, I should think it the most unproductive source of satisfaction to the possessor. I have heard of many very p. 30wealthy men that have tormented themselves with the fear of coming to actual want, but I never heard of one man in moderate circumstances that was afflicted with this monomania.”
“You talk like a philosopher,” said Mr. Draper, laughing, “who means to live all his life in his tub. ”

“ Spring-time and harvest follow each other rapidly; p. 10we have to prepare our barns and granaries. Our mowing season is always one of our busiest. We have our anxieties, too;—we watch the clouds as they pass over us, and our spirits depend much on sunshine and rain; for an unexpected shower may destroy all our labors. When the grass is cut, we must make it into hay; and, when it is properly prepared, store it in the barns. ”

“ The pleasures of sense are wisely limited to narrow boundaries; the epicure has no prolonged gratification in eating; though he may wish for the throat of the crane, he cannot obtain it; neither does he enjoy his expensive delicacies more than the day-laborer does his simple fare. ”

“ Draper, “that do not belong to those who are striving to grow rich; you have wealth that money seldom can buy,—time.”
“We have our seasons of leisure,” returned Howard, “and yet, I assure you, we have employment enough to prize those periods. You would be surprised to find how much constant occupation every season demands. Spring is the great storehouse of our wealth, but we must toil to open its treasures; they are hid in the bowels of the earth.”
“You remind me,” said Mrs. Draper, “of the story of the farmer who had two sons. To one he left a large sum of gold ”

“ You have made an enthusiast of Frances; nothing will do for her now but the country.”
“My wife is anxious about the health of yours,” said Howard; “she thinks her cough an indication of weak lungs.”
“I know,” said Mr. Draper, stopping short, “she is subject to a cough; ours is a miserable climate; I hope the warm weather will entirely banish it. I have a bad cough myself;”—and he coughed with energy. ”

“ Draper. “Every wise man will fix upon a certain sum, that his reason and experience tell him will be sufficient for his expenditures; and then he ought to retire from business, and hazard no more.—Now, Howard, as I must hurry through dinner, we may as well improve our time. I promised to aid you in the disposition of your surplus money. As you have a dread of adventure, and do not like to run any risk, I p. 19will take it myself, and give you compound interest.” ”

“ I have already overrun my time,” said he, looking at his watch. “If possible, I shall be at home early, but it is a busy season; two East India cargoes have just arrived, and several consignments of cotton from the south; all are pressing upon us.”
“My brother,” said Howard, as he disappeared, “is the same active, enterprising man he always was. I rejoice to hear, however, that he has set some limits to his desire for wealth.”
“Our desires grow proportionably to our increase of wealth, I believe,” said Mrs. Draper. ”

“ The one invested his money in merchandise, and p. 9made ‘haste to grow rich;’ the other dug every year with renewed hope of finding the gold, and continued planting and sowing as his father had done before him. At the end of fifteen years, they met on the same spot, the one a bankrupt, the other a thriving farmer. I suppose,” added she, “I need not put the moral to the end of my tale, in imitation of Æsop’s fables; you will find it out.”
“It is so applicable,” said Howard, “to our present conversation, that I almost think it is an impromptu for my benefit.” ”

“ But that is the way with us: we call those things sublime which are on a large scale, because they are magnified to our narrow minds, and we can comprehend them without any trouble.—But I must not display all my wisdom to you at once—how, like Solomon of old, I can speak of trees, from ‘the cedar-tree that is in Lebanon p. ”

“ We turn up the ground, and leave it rough, as a preparation for the spring. A good farmer never allows the winter to take him by surprise. The cellars are to be banked up, the barns to be tightened, the cattle looked to,—the apples carefully barrelled, and the produce sent to market. We have long evenings for assorting our seeds, and for fireside enjoyment. Winter is the season for adjusting the accounts of the past year, and finding out whether we p. ”

“ Times are perplexing: bills come back protested—bad news from England—sudden and unlooked-for failures—no one can tell where it will end. We have been obliged to stop our works at Clyde Farm, and there are from ninety to a hundred laborers thrown out of employment. ”

“ The road must pass through the hill, and near the house. He was aware that it would destroy the rural beauty of the place; but what an increase of wealth it would be! what a princely revenue! what a spirit of business p. 55and speculation it would spread through the country! Every man would be able not only to make the most of his capital, but to get credit to ten times its real amount. He considered it a public benefit, and he was imperiously called to accomplish it ”

“ Draper; “he is born to be a farmer, and nothing else. I have no wish to change his vocation; he dignifies it by uniting intelligence with manual labor; but there are many who are toiling merely for money, and they can get much more by my method than his.”
p. 56“Will their happiness be increased?” said Mrs. Draper.
“Certainly, inasmuch as wealth procures the means of happiness.”
“Have you found it so?” again asked Frances.
“Not precisely. I am still toiling; my season for rest and enjoyment has not arrived.”
“And yet,” said Frances, “Howard is rich enough for enjoyment. ”

“ All went on with wonderful rapidity; story rose upon story, till it seemed as if the new manufactory, with its windows and abutments, was destined to become another Babel. When Charlotte came to Clyde, she gazed with astonishment. “All this,” said she to Howard, p. 46“is the project of a speculator! Grown men now-a-days remind me of the story of the boy who planted his bean at night, and went out in the morning to see how it grew; he found it had nearly reached the chamber windows; he went out the next morning, and it was up to the eaves of the house ”