92 THE JONATHAN PAPERS 



that seems to me richly descriptive, so 

 &quot;nose-y.&quot; 



Of course a rock like this did not belong in 

 a well-planned barnyard. Nowhere, except 

 in New England, or perhaps in Switzerland, 

 would one occur. But in our part of New 

 England they occur so thickly that they are 

 hard to dodge, even in building a house. I 

 remember an entry in an old ledger discov 

 ered in the attic: &quot;To blasten rocks in my 

 sollor 3 6.&quot; 



Without doubt the rock was in the way. 

 Jonathan used to speak about it in ungentle 

 terms every time he drove in and turned 

 around. But this gave me no anxiety, because 

 I felt sure that it had survived much stronger 

 language than his. I did not think about 

 dynamite. Probably when the Psalmist 

 wrote about the eternal hills he did not think 

 about dynamite either. 



And dynamite did the deed. It broke my 

 pretty rock into little pieces as one might 

 break up a chunk of maple sugar with a pair 

 of scissors. It made a beautiful barnyard, but 

 I missed my refuge, my stronghold. 



But this was only the beginning. Back of 



