All the same, Tommy found it difficult at first to understand how people
who lived in countries where they had to undergo great hardships could
be so attached to their own land as to prefer it to any other country in
the world. "I have," he said, "seen a great many ladies and little
misses at our house, and whenever they were talking of the places where
they should like to live, I have always heard them say that they hated
the country of all things, though they were born and bred there."

MR. BARLOW: And yet there are thousands who bear to live in it all their
lives, and have no desire to change. Should you, Harry, like to go to
live in some town?

HARRY: Indeed, sir, I should not, for then I must leave everything I
love in the world.

TOMMY: And have you ever been in any large town?

HARRY: Once I was in Exeter, but I did not much like it. The houses
seemed to me to stand too thick and close, and then there are little,
narrow alleys where the poor live, and the houses are so high that
neither light nor air can ever get to them. And they most of them
appeared so dirty and unhealthy that it made my heart ache to look at
them. I went home the next day, and never was better pleased in my life.
When I came to the top of the great hill, from which you have a prospect
of our house, I really thought I should have cried with joy. The fields
looked all so pleasant, and the very cattle, when I went about to see
them, all seemed glad that I was come home again.

MR. BARLOW: You see by this that it is very possible for people to like