WILD PASTURES 



wilderness. Let us pause a moment 

 upon the line of demarcation. Behind 

 us are the entrenchments of civilization, 

 the farmhouse and barn and other 

 buildings, its fort. The town road is 

 the military way leading from fortified 

 camp to fortified camp, the mowing field 

 its glacis, and the stone walls its outer 

 entrenchments. These the cohorts of 

 the wilderness continually dare, and are 

 kept from carrying only by the vigilance 

 of the farmer and his men. 



Let but this vigilance relax for a 

 year, a spring month even, and bramble 

 and bayberry, sweet fern and wild rose, 

 daring scouts that they are, will have 

 a foothold that they will yield only 

 with death. Close upon these will fol- 

 low the birches, the light infantry 

 which rushes to the advance line as soon 

 as the scouts have found the foothold. 



