XanDmarfcs 



the barrenness of the landscape. He deserves to 

 be kicked, and yet preserves the respect of his 

 fellows ; he even excites their envy. Another of 

 my neighbors cut down four walnut-trees that he 

 might enlarge his pigsty. After this there seemed 

 to be no hope ; for these men, who even shoot cat- 

 birds to save their cherries, who stuff their stom- 

 achs and starve their ears, are not to be reasoned 

 with. For years, as I looked from an east win- 

 dow. I saw that group of walnuts, towering above 

 the other trees, and in summer their leafy tops 

 seemed like a huge ball that was rolling along the 

 horizon, for trees on all sides hemmed me in. 

 Now there is a break. I can see beyond, where I 

 do not care to look, or, looking earthward, trace 

 the roof of the new piggery. With the proceeds 

 of his crop of pork, he too, this enemy of walnut- 

 trees, is going to Florida. But even worse things 

 have been done. Another neighbor has felled an 

 old oak because the shade rotted the shingles, and 

 now has a sunburnt door-yard, with a sickly arbor- 

 vitae near where the old tree stood, a very mod- 

 est green tombstone of the fallen monarch. This 

 neighbor never thought that his shingle roof might 

 have been replaced by slates at about the same 

 cost that was required to remove the tree. " But 

 I sold the tree for a good price," he said to me. 

 "And you gave away your credit for common 

 sense," I replied. 



Perhaps there is no landmark so suggestive as an 

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