Quotation from: The Valley of the Moon

Written by: Jack London

The milking lesson did not prove as successful as Billy's
plowing; but when he had mocked sufficiently, Saxon challenged
him to try, and he failed as grievously as she. Saxon had eyes
and questions for everything, and it did not take her long to
realize that she was looking upon the other side of the farming
shield. Farm and farmer were old-fashioned. There was no
intensive cultivation. There was too much land too little farmed.
Everything was slipshod. House and barn and outbuildings were
fast falling into ruin. The front yard was weed-grown. There was
no vegetable garden. The small orchard was old, sickly, and
neglected. The trees were twisted, spindling, and overgrown with
a gray moss. The sons and daughters were away in the cities,
Saxon found out. One daughter had married a doctor, the other was
a teacher in the state normal school; one son was a locomotive
engineer, the second was an architect, and the third was a police
court reporter in San Francisco. On occasion, the father said,
they helped out the old folks.