The four walked along and talked of the society and wondered they had not thought of it years before. The short hours the young people have to work and exercise the different portions of their body until it becomes a pleasure to be employed, is a great change from the drudgery of the past.
Mrs. Brown here stated that she expected their married son to come on in about a month or six weeks.
“We have arranged for him to receive our permanent shares after our death,” Mr. Brown said. “He, like your boys, did not see what advantages the society offered him until we reminded him that our permanent shares could go to him, but he would have to keep increasing his own shares. It was hard for him to understand that we were leaving a certain amount in consumable shares and using them in our living. He is not very strong and his wife thinks they can have the children in the nursery and she can work in one of the factories to help them out while the children are small. We told them the advantage they would have of buying their food already cooked, leaving her free to earn all that she could while the children would have the advantage of every kind of learning that their minds were capable of receiving, or their age or strength permitted.
“You were not here last year, Mrs. Brown, when the men all came home from the wheatfields? I suppose you know the society sends all our men that are required to harvest the grain. Well, they have to go hundreds of miles away and the last few years when they return they bring the unmarried men back with them; that is, all who wish to come, to spend the winter in the Colony. Only a few were married when the Colony started, so many men go out and take up the land on the prairies and bush land also. Well, they get settled there and for years never have a chance to see any women to speak of. Now our Colony invites them to come here during the winter and, if they want it, we find them work. However, many come to share the social advantages and to learn the new ideas that are being taught. It makes the winter very lively, I can tell you. I never saw so many marriages as this exchange of interests brings about and they are the right kind, too. This bringing the unmarried men from those new parts of the country back here where they can find wives and the sending of our able bodied men out there to work for the summer is exchanging with a vengeance.”
“But do our men want to go out there?” asked Mr. Brown.
“Certainly,” says Mr. White, “they volunteer. You see our steam wagons make it possible for them to go with very little expense. They are fitted up with folding beds, cooking utensils, and with the use of gasoline for steam and to cook with we make the exchange a very easy one. They also bring the grain with them when they come. Our men can earn higher wages by going out there and of course they want to go. Then the novelty to the young men of sleeping wherever night overtakes them. The covered wagons are as comfortable as their own beds at home; then the advantage to the men who have the land and the grain to harvest is more than most people think, besides having the ready market assured them at prices that make it pay. It does away with the gamblers and stock exchange as far as the society is concerned. We store it on our own property. Well, here we are at our own home. I expect it is near dinner time, so good-bye for the present.”
They then went to their apartments.
A day long to be remembered was when the boys and men were expected home from the wheatfields. It had been a successful season and in the Colony all had been excitement for days, preparing for their return.
“Oh, what a bright day,” a young girl exclaims as she rushes to the window in the morning. “I am so glad it is fine. We can all enjoy meeting them together out in the grounds now. I wonder who will see them first. I wish they would allow us to go on the watch tower. We could see so far away from there.”
Several other girls were now at the windows and one said, “Do you see the dust just beyond the hill? That is them.”