CHAPTER VI 
THE LONG ISLAND WOODS 
LACES are like people: none are without 
peculiarities; few without some redeem- 
ing trait. Rambling about with an eye for 
all outdoors, peering incessantly at the face 
of the country, studying its character, and 
searching out its secrets, I have come insensi- 
bly to endow each locality with a personality 
of its own and to find that each has something 
peculiar to itself, some charm as of manner 
and feature which commends it, distinguishes 
it from others, and causes it tolive in memory 
for that, and often for that alone. It may 
appeal by its very grimness and austerity as 
do the bleak Dogtown pastures of Cape Ann, 
quite as readily as by that mellow and pas- 
toral charm of the vineyards on the shores 
of Canandaigua, where through the classic 
vines with their drooping clusters, one has 
vistas of the serene blue surface stretching 
away to the hazy outlines of purple hills. 
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