118 THE JONATHAN PAPERS 



that it is before some other house, and usually 

 it is. And if, having nothing better to do, we 

 perchance walk to the window and glance out 

 between the curtains, we are repaid by seeing 

 nothing interesting and by feeling a little 

 shamefaced besides. 



Not so in the country. What happens 

 along the Road is usually our intimate con 

 cern. Most of those who go by on it are our 

 own acquaintances and neighbors, and are 

 interesting as such. The rest are strangers, 

 and interesting as such. For it is the rarity 

 of the stranger that gives him his piquancy. 



And so in the country it is both good form 

 and worth while to watch the Road to 

 &quot;keep an eye out,&quot; as they say. When Jona 

 than and I first came to the farm, we were 

 incased in a hard incrustation of city ways. 

 When teams passed, we did not look up; when 

 a wagon rattled, we did not know whose it 

 was, and we said we did not care. W 7 hen one 

 of our neighbors remarked, casually, &quot;Heard 

 Bill Smith s team go by at half-past eleven 

 last night. W T onder if the s anythin wrong 

 down his way,&quot; we stared at one another in 

 amazement, and wondered, &quot;Now, how in the 



