Quotation from: The Valley of the Moon

Written by: Jack London

Sometimes, in the long afternoons, sitting by the window with
idle hands, she caught herself reconstructing in her vision that
folk-migration of her people across the plains and mountains and
deserts to the sunset land by the Western sea. And often she
found herself dreaming of the arcadian days of her people, when
they had not lived in cities nor been vexed with labor unions and
employers' associations. She would remember the old people's
tales of self-sufficingness, when they shot or raised their own
meat, grew their own vegetables, were their own blacksmiths and
carpenters, made their own shoes--yes, and spun the cloth of the
clothes they wore. And something of the wistfulness in Tom's face
she could see as she recollected it when he talked of his dream
of taking up government land.