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."
"That is true," said Mr. Harry, "the road question is a serious one. Do
you know how father and I settle it?"
"No," said Mr. Maxwell.
"We got so tired of the whole business, and the farmers around here
spent so much time in discussing the art of roadmaking, as to whether it
should be viewed from the engineering point of view, or the farmers'
practical point of view, and whether we would require this number of
stump extractors or that number, and how many shovels and crushers and
ditchers would be necessary to keep our roads in order, and so on, that
we simply withdrew.
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