OUT-OF-TOWN PLACES 



lings of three or four years, if cut within a 

 foot of the ground, will branch off into a ram- 

 pant growth of boughs, whose fine spray, even 

 in the winter, is almost equal to its glossy 

 show of summer foliage. 



I do not know if I have made my case clear; 

 but what I have wished has been to guard 

 purchasers, who are really in earnest, against 

 being disturbed or rebuffed by the rough as- 

 pect of such country places as commend them- 

 selves in other respects. The subjugation of 

 roughness, or rather, the alleviation of it by a 

 thousand little daintinesses of treatment, is 

 what serves chiefly to keep alive interest in a 

 country homestead. 



I must say, for my own part, that I enjoy 

 often for months together some startling de- 

 fect in my grounds — so deep is my assurance, 

 that two days of honest labor will remove it 

 all, and startle on-lookers by the change. 



But let no rural enthusiast hope to up-root 

 all the ill-growth, or to smooth all the rough- 

 nesses in a year. He would be none the happier 

 if he could. We find our highest pleasure in 

 conquest of difficulties. And he who has 

 none to conquer, or does not meet them, must 

 be either fool or craven. 



128 



