American beauty and splendor

You found beauty and even splendor wherever you went—and ugliness too, of course, where the greedy or careless men had despoiled the land. And you found the people bursting with friendliness, cordiality, hospitality. They were better off, materially, than any other you had seen, a bit unmindful perhaps of their good luck, a little apt to take too much credit for themselves and grant too little to God and fortune. Yet surely they had the right to be proud of what they had built and of the life they had made.