VI 

 PASTURES FAIR AND LARGE 



\\THAT the "keeping-room" is to the 

 * * rest of the house, the pasture is to the 

 rest of the farm. Its very atmosphere sug- 

 gests a friendly largess and hospitality, as 

 any horse, cow, or sheep would testify could 

 any of them be called on the witness stand. 

 Over all the cultivated fields "Mustn't 

 touch" is written for the stock as plainly as 

 it is for the children in the rooms which hold 

 their mothers' choicest bric-a-brac. But in 

 a pasture you need not keep off the grass; 

 instead, you may sit on it, lie on it, or eat 

 it as may be your need or habit. The 

 wheat-field may receive formal standing 

 calls, but it offers you no seat, and is too 

 busy to entertain callers until the harvesting 

 season is over, and then one finds it too worn 

 out to be very entertaining. Not so the 

 genial, democratic pasture, which is at home 



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