young people around him get so disgusted with that way of getting
rich, that they go off to the cities to find out some other way, or at
least to enjoy themselves, for I don't think many young people are
animated by a desire to heap up money."

Mr. Maxwell looked amused. "There is certainly a great exodus
from country places cityward," he said. "What would be your plan
for checking it?"

"I would make the farm so pleasant, that you couldn't hire the boys
and girls to leave it. I would have them work, and work hard, too,
but when their work was over, I would let them have some fun.
That is what they go to the city for. They want amusement and
society, and to get into some kind of a crowd when their work is
done. The young men and young women want to get together, as is
only natural. Now that could be done in the country. If farmers
would be contented with smaller profits and smaller farms, their
houses could be nearer together. Their children would have
opportunities of social intercourse, there could be societies and
clubs, and that would tend to a distribution of literature. A farmer
ought to take five or six papers and two or three magazines. He
would find it would pay him in the long run, and there ought to be
a law made, compelling him to go to the post office once a day."

Mr. Maxwell burst out laughing. "And another to make him mend
his roads as well as mend his ways. I tell you Gray, the bad roads
would put an end to all these fine schemes of yours. Imagine
farmers calling on each other on a dark evening after a spring
freshet. I can see them mired and bogged, and the house a mile
ahead of them."