THE COUNTRY YARD 



wind when the sun begins to fall to the south. 

 Like the other occupants of the home ground, It 

 does not satisfy the eye alone; It addresses the 

 mind and Imagination. 



Perhaps you are frugal, or sociable, and pre- 

 fer fruit-trees to pines. Better see that your 

 neighbors are supplied with the like, then. I 

 once had a pear-tree and a raspberry patch In a 

 town yard. They were a harrowing experience. 

 Some one had to run out every hour or so, and 

 shoo the boys away — not that we cared about 

 the pears, much, because they were of a variety 

 I have never found anywhere else, being as hard 

 as cocoanuts and as digestible as rocks; Indeed, 

 the rogue who stole one deserved to eat it; but 

 the little rascals broke the limbs. Impaired the 

 symmetry of the tree, and the premises, trampled 

 the flowers and made the grass as sadly In need 

 of combing as their own heads. I had a notion 

 to put up Charles Dudley Warner's " Children, 

 beware : There is protoplasm here ! " But that 

 would have brought them In to look for It. I 

 might have strung an electrified wire about the 

 yard, but the boys who had enjoyed an experi- 

 ence with it would then have led in shoals of 

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