XII 



I HAVE a poorer opinion of myself than I 

 had a week ago. It's on account of those goats. 

 I set about trying to sell them to a friend the 

 other day. The trial came to nothing; my 

 friend was too wise; but it might have suc- 

 ceeded, and then I'd have been a traitor to 

 friendship. Would you like to think of your- 

 self so? 



It came about through a visit to this friend 

 at his farm over south of town. He owns a 

 beautiful place of four hundred acres on the 

 crest of a mountain, overlooking all the earth 

 and the kingdoms thereof. He bought it three 

 years ago, and he got just what the rest of us 

 got who bought around here a farm in a sad 

 state of neglect. There was a run-down apple 

 orchard of fifty acres. The fields were mostly 

 rough wastes of sassafras bush. If you looked 

 at the spot sharply you saw only unkempt 

 ugliness ; you would have to throw your mental 

 eyes a little out of focus to see the great beauty 



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