254 FOREST OUTINGS 



people and their resorts. But much the same thing may happen, in a meas- 

 ure, even in a forest environment. In A Further Range, a book of poems, 

 Robert Frost tells in sharp, unforgettable accents of a crude roadside stand 

 set up by a New England woods farmer trying to earn a little extra money 

 from the swishing tourist transients: 



A roadside stand that too pathetically plead, 



It would not be fair to say for a dole of bread, 



But for some of the money, the cash, whose flow supports 



The flower of cities from sinking and withering faint. 



The polished traffic passed with a mind ahead, 



Or if ever aside a moment, then out of sorts 



At having the landscape marred with the artless paint 



Of signs that with N turned wrong and S turned wrong 



Offered for sale wild berries in wooden quarts, 



Of crooked-neck golden squash with silver warts, 



Or beauty rest in a beautiful mountain scene. 



You have the money, but if you want to be mean, 



Why keep your money (this crossly) and go along. 



The hurt of the scenery wouldn't be my complaint 



So much as the trusting sorrow of what is unsaid: 



Here far from the city we make our roadside stand 



To ask for some city money to feel in hand 



To try if it will not make our being expand, 



And give us the life of the moving pictures' promise 



That the party in power is said to be keeping from us . . 



Sometimes I feel myself I can hardly bear 



The thought of so much childish longing in vain, 



The sadness that lurks near the open window there, 



That waits all day in almost open prayer 



For the squeal of brakes, the sound of a stopping car, 



Of all the thousand selfish cars that pass, 



Just one to inquire what a farmer's prices are. 



And one did stop, but only to plow up grass 



In using the yard to go back and turn around; 



And another to ask the way to where it was bound; 



And another to ask could they sell it a gallon of gas 



They couldn't (this crossly): they had none, didn't it see? 



