CHAPTER VI. 



NEGLECTED BEAUTY. 



I should like to write a chapter on the neglected 

 beautiful things that surround us, a sort of eye- 

 opener to help folk see what is right before their 

 faces. I know a man not cut from a fashion plate 

 who sees none of the things that most people see, 

 an impracticable fellow ; but he sees everything that 

 we do not see. If you will visit him, you will find 

 his barn is almost embowered with grapevines and 

 bittersweet and Virginia creeper. He has cut holes 

 for his team to drive through. "Pretty, ain't it," 

 he says, "and it's sort o' comfortin' to see the red, 

 and then I get lots of grapes for nothin'. The vines 

 break the wind, and some days it's mighty nice to 

 get inside of them. It's most like having two roofs 

 on your barn, and growin' a crop between them. 

 Besides the birds like it. There's a dozen nests of 

 them up there all snug as you please. Did you 

 ever notice the two kinds of bittersweet? This kind 

 is the male and don't bear any seed. That clematis 

 over there is female. See what splendid bunches of 

 seed pods it has, like balls of flaxen hair." So he 

 rattles on, full of natural enthusiasm, and I find he 

 is quite a student as well as observer. In his shop 

 he has a collection of esthetic birds' nests, the finest 

 I ever saw or heard of. He has collected all the 

 springs on his upper lot, and down below has scooped 



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