74 OUT-OF-TOWN PLACES. 



must hang at every man's door-yard those unpre- 

 tending swinging barriers, by which every country 

 house-holder is shut off from the world, and by which 

 he is joined to the world. They may be made to give 

 a good deal of expression to a place ; they have 

 almost as much to do with it, in fact, as a man's 

 mouth has to do with the expression of his face. 



There was once a gate called " Beautiful," by 

 which a lame man lay we ah 1 remember that ; there 

 was once too a certain " wicketrgate " (with a great 

 light shining somewhere beyond it) which Evan- 

 gelist pointed out to Christian, whereby the pilgrim 

 might enter upon the path to the Celestial City we 

 all remember that gate ; and there was another gate, 

 belonging to our days of roundabouts and satchels, by 

 which we went out, noon and morning, by which we 

 returned, noon and evening on which we swung 

 upon stolen occasions a gate whereat we loitered 

 with other philosophers, in other roundabouts and 

 with other green satchels, and discussed problems of 

 marbles, or base-ball, or of the weather, a gate 

 through which led the path to the first home ; well, I 

 think everybody remembers such a gate. And thus 

 it happens that the subject has a certain poetic and 

 romantic interest which cannot be wholly ignored, 

 and which I wonder that the landscapists have so 

 indifferently treated. 



