224 A TASTE OF KEXTUGKY BLUE-GRASS 



glanced out of the window, I thought I began to 

 see a change. Presently I was very sure I did. 

 It began to appear in the more grassy character 

 of the woods. Then I caught sight of pecu- 

 liarly soft and uniform grassy patches here and 

 there in the open. Then in a few moments 

 more the train had shot us fairly into the edge 

 of the blue-grass region, and the farmer in me 

 ♦ began to be on the alert. We had passed in a 

 twinkling from a portion of the earth's surface 

 which is new, which is of yesterday, to a por- 

 tion which is of the oldest, from the carboni- 

 ferous to the lower silurian. Here, upon this 

 lower Silurian, the earth that saw and nourished 

 the great monsters and dragons was growing 

 the delicate blue- grass. It had taken all these 

 millions upon millions of years to prepare the 

 way for this little plant to grow to perfection. 

 I thought I had never seen fields and low hills 

 look so soft in the twilight; they seemed clad 

 in greenish-gray fur. As we neared Mount 

 Sterling, how fat and smooth the land looked; 

 what long, even, gently flowing lines against 

 the fading western sky, broken here and there 

 by herds of slowly grazing or else reposing and 

 ruminating cattle! What peace and plenty it 

 suggested! From a land raw and crude and 

 bitter like unripe fruit, we had suddenly been 

 transported into the midst of one ripe and mel- 

 low with the fullness of time. It was sweet 

 to look upon. I was seized with a strong de- 

 sire to go forth and taste it by a stroll through 

 it in the twilight. 



