human
You know, I think we did take it rather as a new toy when we first come down here, Caroline said.
gpt
We loved the country, and we wanted a country house of our very own. Of course we've all enjoyed it awfully in that way, but I don't think any of us thought we should live here so much as we have. We've hardly lived in London, all together, since. And we are always wanting to get back here when we do.
human
Mr. Grafton doesn't take such an interest in the estate as Sir Alexander does in Wilborough?
gpt
Darling old Dad! she said.
human
It is rather a bore to him. He works when he is in London, and likes to play down here, and leave the work to you and Uncle Jimmy. But he's a good Squire all the same, isn't he? He gives you everything you ask for.
gpt
Oh, yes. There's never any trouble about money to run the show as it ought to be run. I only meant he didn't take much interest in details.
human
I don't suppose people at the head of a big business generally do, do they? They leave the details to the people they can trust. Dad wouldn't take much interest in the details of his banking.
gpt
Oh, well, I see what you mean. This isn't his real business as it is Sir Alexander's. Still, there's something I can't get quite right in my mind. It's all so--well, so happy, to me, that I don't like to think there's a flaw anywhere--in the system, I mean. Mr. Grafton pays for it, doesn't he? He makes his money somewhere else. He bought the estate, but it can't return him much on his capital--certainly not enough to live on in the way you do.
human
No, but why should it? We get all the fun of it extra. I suppose you may say Dad pays for that. It returns enough to run itself, though. I suppose you and Uncle Jimmy see to that.
gpt
Oh, yes. It keeps us going, too. And everything is run as it ought to be. All the farms are let, and everybody is contented,--or ought to be. Everybody is getting a living, anyhow, out of the land.
human
I love to think of people getting a living out of the land.
gpt
Do you feel like that about it, too? he asked.
human
So do I. It fills me with pleasure. I like to think of everything that's growing on the land, and every little thing that's done to make it grow, and the men who do it all; and some of them get so wise, always living and working on it, that you would never learn all they know if you read about it till the end of your life.
gpt
I talked to old Bull once while he was laying a fence, she said.
human
He was proud to let me see how cleverly he was doing it, and that it wasn't so easy as it looked. He has been hedging and ditching all his life, and he enjoys it as much as anything he could do.
gpt
Yes, I know. That's the sort of work a man can enjoy, with his hands. You're helping nature, and if you learn the ways of nature she helps you. There's never any monotony in nature. She's alive.
human
When you see people like that, you're apt to be ashamed of yourself for all the things you want to make you contented. Old Bull has brought up a large family on less than half of what I have for a dress allowance. His dear old wife,--I know her too--gets the most out of every penny that he gives her, and he has all he wants at home. There's no anxiety about life when you've been trained to do without things and not to want them.
gpt
No, you get your satisfaction out of the things you have, and they are much bigger than the things you do without.
human
They have enough to eat and drink, and good clothes to wear. They have their family interests, and their friends. They see people they know, and have known all their lives, more easily than people like us do. They hardly ever move out of their village, but the little changes of life from day to day and from week to week, with their work, and their times of leisure, are enough for them.
gpt
It's an idyllic picture, he said.
human
There are people who will tell you that you won't keep them on the land except by bringing the pleasures of the town to them.
gpt
That's mostly the young people, she said.
human
I'm only thinking now of the older ones, who really belong to the land. Their interests are in it, and I think it brings them something as near contentment as it is possible to have.
gpt
You feel a little like that about it yourself, don't you?
human
I suppose we are generally thinking a little about ourselves when we are talking about other people, she said.
gpt
I know how different my life is from theirs--how much more I want to--to keep me quiet. But I know that the more simple I make it, and the more it depends upon what lies around me, the happier I am.