24 TENANTS OF AN OLD FARM. 



of a mind detecting itself in error— doubt and keen in- 

 quiry, as though the latent sophistry of my remarks 

 were suspected but not seen. I followed up my advan- 

 tage. 



" Cast your eye along this little stream as it skirts 

 yonder hill-side and pursues its winding course across 

 the niradow. Has it not taken upon itself the external 

 and formal limitations of your ' ugly snake '? If a poet 

 were to speak of it as 'crawling,' or of its ' serpentine 

 way,' would he not be borrowing terms from the snake's 

 natural action to express his idea of beautiful foi'm and 

 motion ? The progress of a serpent over the ground or 

 through the water is the very ideal of free, graceful 

 movement. Then, as to its anatomy — but, come, I 

 must not be too fierce an iconoclast, or I shall cause 

 a reaction in your thoughts against my animal friends, 

 and quite spoil any good effect that I may have wrought 

 in their behalf. This is your Saturday holida}' ; can 

 you join me for one hour in a morning stroll along the 

 run ? I promise you some new and I hope agreeable 

 acquaintances." 



