“Producers are supplied at cost, non-producers at a small advance. The general Store-houses are farther down this, the Poplar Valley, but also on the line of public travel.
“The Mother-fields are to the right, in the Maple-valley, while the Father-fields fill the Elm-valley, to the left.
“Yonder, where the hill-side appears checked with different tints, are the Schools of Natural History.”
“Schools?” we interrupted, quite prepared to exploit the superiority of certain educational institutions farther east, in the organization and regulation of which we had offered several valuable suggestions: “How many schools have you?”
“They vary according to our needs; one for every ten students, from four to twenty years of age.”
We neglected to dilate upon the immense advantages of our systems. We may have been intoxicated by the invigorating atmosphere, the beautiful scene, or the chanting and enchanting guides.
We did, however, venture to ask, deprecatingly, “Do you study only Natural History?”
With a merry laugh, they answered, “Indeed! That is much, we think: To learn of the birth, growth, development and decay of Nature’s products, from the tiniest manifestation of life—animal, vegetable and mineral—to man’s perfect evolution, from this physical form into spirituality.
“We, children, learn only the rudiments of each change, the Scientists and Philosophers make it their life work.”
“And live and die poor, here as elsewhere?” we facetiously suggested.