IN THE CATSKILLS 



hens cackled and hid their nests, and from the open 

 window of which the hay was always hanging. 



Then the great timbers of these barns and the 

 Dutch barn , hewn from maple or birch or oak trees 

 from the primitive woods, and put in place by the 

 combined strength of all the brawny arms in the 

 neighborhood when the barn was raised, timbers 

 strong enough and heavy enough for docks and 

 quays, and that have absorbed the odors of the hay 

 and grain until they look ripe and mellow and full 

 of the pleasing sentiment of the great, sturdy, boun- 

 tiful interior! The " big beam " has become smooth 

 and polished from the hay that has been pitched 

 over it, and the sweaty, sturdy forms that have 

 crossed it. One feels that he would like a piece of 

 furniture a chair, or a table, or a writing-desk, a 

 bedstead, or a wainscoting made from these long- 

 seasoned, long-tried, richly toned timbers of the 

 old barn. But the smart-painted, natty barn that 

 follows the humbler structure, with its glazed win- 

 dows, its ornamented ventilator and gilded weather 

 vane, who cares to contemplate it? The wise 

 human eye loves modesty and humility; loves plain, 

 simple structures; loves the unpainted barn that 

 took no thought of itself, or the dwelling that looks 

 inward and not outward ; is offended when the 

 farm-buildings get above their business and aspire 

 to be something on their own account, suggesting, 

 not cattle and crops and plain living, but the vani- 

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