OUT-OF-TOWN PLACES 



— as made the heart rejoice. The high hedge- 

 rows are indeed now being cut down through- 

 out the best cultivated districts, but only for 

 the economy of land, the surface occupied be- 

 ing needed. But while we have country roads 

 from five to six rods wide, the same objection 

 does not obtain with us. Observe again, I 

 beg, that I do not counsel the planting of any 

 such road-side tangles, or indeed the sparing 

 of them, when any better use can be made of 

 the land. I only plead for their continued 

 presence in place of a rude hurly-burly of 

 stubs and harsh boulders, to which condition 

 many farmers reduce them, and call it a judi- 

 cious "slicking up." 



I have run widely away from the little home- 

 stead of my friend Lackland ; so widely indeed, 

 that I shall not soon encounter him again. 

 Whenever that may be, I trust I may hear that 

 his pelargoniums are all a-bloom— that his pig 

 and his cow are thriving — his road-side in 

 order, — his Patrick a jewel of a man, and 

 that all rural felicities attend him. 



Note. — I have used the term "Alderney" cattle, as 

 applying in the old sense to all cattle of Channel Island 

 descent : though, as a matter of fact, we rarely en- 

 counter any true "Alderneys." The talk nowadays is 

 of Jerseys and Guernseys. 



io6 



