NOVEMBER 



Grinnell, November 20, 1885. 

 It has been a clear, very warm day; pleasant 

 weather for a ramble down the valley of Bosworth 

 Creek to the woods. From the western hills, in 

 this calm, clear air, nnobscured by foliage, the 

 town lay exposed in full relief two miles away, 

 challenging one to recognize familiar buildings by 

 the height of walls, shape and height of tower or 

 spire. Extended in a single view, from fringe of 

 small houses on the southern outskirts to the col- 

 lege buildings on the north, the town seemed to 

 assume a new dignity. Small as it is compared 

 with a real city, who could imagine all the life 

 histories being written in its limits while we gazed 

 at it from afar, for the time being mere spectators? 

 The prairie country is not always flat. Some 

 prairie towns are set on seven hills, more or less ; 

 some lie hidden in valleys, and one comes sud- 

 denly upon them, surprised to discover them, like 

 a medieval knight who reined in his *^ steed'' and 

 beheld for the first time the castle-home of his fu- 

 ture wife, dimly peering below through the river 

 mist. But also characteristic is the straight, fair- 



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