240 NEW ENGLAND FENCES 



shadow of the guardian trees. If I were to write the 

 story of their love, it should turn at length into 

 smooth courses, and have no sorrowful ending 

 no departure of the lover, nor pining away of the 

 lass, but at last their bridal bells should say: 



"Life is sweeter, love is dearer, 

 For the trial and delay "; 



and the two farms should become one, and nothing 

 remain of the old fence but the trees where the 

 lovers met, and under which then* children and 

 then* children's children should play. 



The ways through and over our fences are few 

 and simple. The bar-way (in Yankeeland "a pair 

 of bars") seems to belong to the stone wall, rail 

 and stump fences; though the balanced gate, with 

 its long top bar pivoted on a post and loaded with 

 a big stone at one end, the other dropping into a 

 notch in the other post for a fastening, is often 

 used to bar the roadways through them. The more 

 pretending board fence has its more carefully 

 made gate, swinging on iron hinges and fastened 

 with a hook. Sometimes its posts are connected 

 high overhead by a cross beam, a "gallows 

 gate," past which one would think the mur- 

 derer must steal with terror as he skulks along in 

 the gloaming. 



The sound of letting down the bars is a familiar 

 one to New England ears, and after the five or 



