Part 4 (1/2)

The disquieting thing about all this is that I do not use to the uts than I do if I'd only use s, too, if I'd try hs is a thousand tier thanless than ain the jail invites me

CHAPTER XV

HOEING POTATOES

As I was lying in the shade of the maple-tree down there by the ravine, yesterday, I fell to thinking about er I lay there thea citizen in a deuaranteed to me by the Constitution, notably life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness

In hts tohts, andtenor at all, and when I try it I disturb ainst a situation I have a right to use ainsay ers? Queen Elizabeth did I certainly have a right to lie in the shade of the maple-tree for two hours to-day instead of one hour, as I did yesterday I wonder if reclining on the grass under a maple-tree is not a part of the pursuit of happiness that is specifically set out in the Constitution? I hope so, for I'd like to have that wonderful Constitution backingpotatoes is such a tiring task that I prefer to lounge in the shade withof the pursuit of happiness I am inclined to personify happiness and then watch the chase, wondering whether the pursuer will ever overtake her, and what he'll do when he does I note that the Constitution does not guarantee that the pursuer will ever catch her--but just gives him an open field and no favors Heas his endurance holds out I suspect that's where the liberty comes in I wonder if the makers of the Constitution ever visualized that chase If so, they hed, at least in their sleeves, solemn crowd that they were If I were certain that I could overtake happiness I'd gladly join in the pursuit, even on such a warm day as this, but the dread uncertainty makes me prefer to loll here in the shade Besides, I'nize her even if I could catch her The photographs that I have seen are so very different that I ht mistake happiness for so

If I should conclude that I was happy, and then discover that I wasn't, I scarcely see how I could explainmy potatoes and not bother my poor head about happiness It is just possible that I shall find it over there in the potato-patch, for its latitude and longitude have never been definitely determined, so far as I am aware I know I shall find some satisfaction over there at work, and I am convinced that satisfaction and happiness are kinsfolk Possibly my potatoes will prove the answer to some mother's prayer for food for her little ones next winter Who knows? As I loosen the soil about the vines I can look down the vista of thethrough his tears as mother prepares one of my beautiful potatoes for him, and I think I can detect some moisture in mother's eyes, too It is just possible that her tears are the consecrated incense upon the altar of thanksgiving

I like to see such pictures as I ply ive fresh ardor to e the hunger of some little one, and cause the mother's eyes to distil tears of joy, I shall be in the border-land of happiness, to say the least I had fully intended to exercise hts and lie in the shade for two hours to-day, but when I caught a glih chair, and heard his pitiful plea for potatoes, Ito a hurry call I suppose there is no ry child I have been whistling all the afternoon along withbecause h

Well, if they do, then I shall elevate the hoeing of potatoes to the rank of a privilege Oh, I've readthe fence ashed byin fiction, and hoeing potatoes is no fiction Still those ash artists had soht now, only there was no baby in their picture as there is in e I wish I kne to irls If I could only do that, they would have gone far toward a liberal education If I could only get a baby to crying sole through the et to the baby to change its crying into laughter 'Tis worth trying

I wonder, after all, whether education is not the process of shi+fting the eo into the town, to keep my seat in the car and let the old lady use the strap If I insist upon that right I feel entleman But when I relinquish e to be considerate and courteous I have a right to permit weeds and briers to overrun o to rack, and so offend the sight of e to make the premises clean and beautiful, so as to add so ht to stay on reat privilege to go up for a half-hour's exchange of talk with hbor John He always clears the cobwebs from my eyes and from ht, too, to pore over the colored supplement for an hour or so, but when I aes and take the Book of Job instead, I feel that I have ain in self-respect, and can stand o to church, to sit silent and look bored; but, when I availin the responses and the singing, I feel that I a my spirit for the truth that is proclaihts, but when I cohts sees, but hts seees seem curves of beauty

In his scientific laboratory at Princeton, on one occasion, the celebrated Doctor Hodge, in preparing for an experiathered about him: ”Gentlemen, please remove your hats; I am about to ask God a question” So it is with every one who esteelory of the sunrise, the fragrance of the flowers, the colors of the rainbow, theof the stars But I hear a baby crying and et back to my potatoes

CHAPTER XVI

CHANGING THE MIND

I have been reading, in this book, of a e his mind because his intellectual wardrobe was not sufficient to warrant a change I was feeling downright sorry for the poor fellow till I got to wondering howsorry for ed the situation greatly, and I began to feel so rather too personal Just as I begin to think that we have standardized a lot of things, along comes some one in a book, or elsewhere, and co theories and projects et a lot of facts all nicely settled, and begin to enjoy complacency, than some disturber of the peace knocks all my facts topsy-turvy, and says they are not facts at all, but the merest fiction Then I cry aloud withtranslated in the language of the boys, means, ”Where in the world (or nation) are we at?” They are actually trying to refor I do wish these refor to spell _phthisic_, _syzygy_, _daguerreotype_, and _caoutchouc_ They ht have saved h places at the old-fashi+oned spelling-bees

I have a friend who is quite versed in science, and he tells me that any book on science that is more than ten years old is obsolete

Now, that puzzles me no little If that is true, why don't they wait till matters scientific are settled, and then write their books? Why write a book at all when you know that day after to and refute all the theories and reat deal of their tireat fun to come back a hundred years froy I suppose the books we have noill seerandchildren, if people are coar it will take us hu up to the top of the water

Whoever it was that said that consistency is a jeould need to take treatarb each day I don't see how I can be consistent If I said yesterday that some theory of science is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and then find a revision of the statement necessary to-day, I certainly am inconsistent This jewel of consistency certainly loses its lustre, if not its identity, in such a process of shi+fting I do hope these chameleon artists will leave us the multiplication table, the yardstick, and the ablative absolute I'allon, for prohibition will probably do aith that anyhow When I was in school I could tell to a foot the equatorial and the polar diameter of the earth, and whatat the poles, and how it came about Then Mr Peary went up there and tramped all over the north pole, and never said a word about the flattening when he came back I was very much disappointed in Mr Peary

I know, quite as well as I know th of the year is three hundred and sixty-five days, five hours, forty-eightto lop off even one second of my hard-learned year, I shall look upon him as a meddler That is one of my settled facts, and I don't care to have it disturbed If any one coin to tremble for the safety of the Ten Corasshopper is a quadruped, what satisfaction could I possibly take in discovering that he has six legs? It would merely disturb one of my settled facts, and I arasshopper The trouble is, though, that rasshopper's six legs; so I suppose I shall, in the end, get rasshopper suit of clothes so as to be in the fashi+on

This discarding ofs may be what the poet means when he speaks of our dead selves Hethat I ae of ularly as a daily bath Possibly Mr

Hol like that when he wrote his ”Chambered Nautilus” At each advance from one of these compartments to another, I suppose I acquire a new suit of clothes, or, in other words, change my mind Let's see, wasn't it Theseus whose eternal punishment in Hades was just to sit there forever? That seems somewhat heavenly to me But here on earth I suppose I ear day by day

I think I e of suits every day if only some one would provide them for me; but, if I must earn them myself, the case is different I'd like to have some one bestow upon race, and dignity, a Roman suit for Tuesday, a science suit for Wednesday, a suit of poetry for Thursday, and so on, day after day But when I must read all of Homer before I can have the Greek suit, the price see my mind We had a townshi+p picnic back horess of nations, for there were people there who had driven five or six miles from the utmost bounds of the townshi+p

That was a real mental adventure, and it took some time for me to adjust myself to athered people frole trying to grasp the i I feltto understand the n of infinity And when I cahty-eight counties in our State, the o on I felt as did the old gentle its gyrations for so”

My college roommate, Mack, went over to London, once, on some errand, and of course went to the British Museum Near the entrance he came upon the Rosetta Stone, and stood inthralled He reflected that he was standing in the presence of aof recorded history, that back of that all was dark, and that all the books in all the libraries e, so over else, so he turned about and left without seeing anything else in the Museuether as he recounts to me his wonderful visit to the Rosetta Stone I see clearly that in the presence of thathe could possibly wear at the tiery