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hitched up his white apron and gave me 

 a carnivorous stare, while his heavy under- 

 jaw lolled on his breast. 



In the east the sun wavered amid a 

 drifting purplish film, like a huge cherry- 

 red bubble shot with iridescent fire. It 

 seemed slowly to wax hot and refulgent 

 as I left the town behind me, and when 

 presently the tilled fields opened on either 

 hand, great beams flashed across them, 

 the meadow-larks twinkling here and there 

 like sparks flung up from the kindling 

 ground. Some crows occupied fence- 

 stakes in the distance, or walked in the 

 newly opened corn-furrows with a peculiar 

 wagging gait. It was poor soil the farm- 

 ers were plowing; but it looked fresh, and 

 sent forth a pungent fragrance of broken 

 sassafras roots mixed with that subtle 

 effluence which goes by the name of 

 " outdoors air." 



Under the spur of a desire to reach the 

 wooded hills once more, I cast the little 

 meandering road behind me as if I had 

 been unwinding it from a spool. One 

 considerable frame farm-house, flanked 

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