WAYLAYING THE DAWN 



love the wild things, the lure of the 

 home-leading and well-trodden paths is 

 strong upon you. It is more than a 

 sturdy, rough-built stone wall that sep- 

 arates the two lanes; there is all the 

 long road from the wilderness down to 

 civilization between them. 



For the story the pasture teaches us, 

 more than anything else is the story 

 of how the fathers wrested the do- 

 minion of the New England earth from 

 the wilderness and of the way in which 

 the wilderness still hems their world 

 about and not only waits the opportu- 

 nity to spring upon us and regain pos- 

 session, but invests our fields like an 

 invading army and takes by stealth 

 what it may not win by force. 



The pasture bars divide the world of 

 the smooth-trodden lane and the close- 

 shorn fields from the picket line of the 

 7 



