The Rural Mind
How deep and wide is the gulf separating the country and the town dweller few of us wholly realised till this exodus from the town began. Of course, poor children, given a country holiday, have supplied examples enough of urban ignorance of rural things. This is to be expected ; but these holiday children almost universally enjoy the sudden change in almost all its aspects. I should say that a majority of the evacuated children and mothers feel home-sick for the town. A constant nostalgia possesses them ; and what they most miss seems to be the shops. The shop windows, with their lights and bright variety, provide a constant cinema, a theatre that is all scene without drama. The truth is that you must know the country before it seems worthy of your love. And perhaps there are more natures which are urban in character than natures which are rural—so far has our civilisation led us from primal things. The minority is, of course, considerable. I shall never forget two small boys from London at a ploughing competition. They had a mar- vellously accurate eye for the best work, and picked out the winners as skilfully as the judges. The pair went away with a firm determination to follow a ploughman's career.
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