Robin Hood's Barn 



a pilgrimage where I may seek my shrines in sol- 

 itude, be rapt clean out of myself. 



And without pretensions, it is not so easy. 

 Even with them, the Piscataqua must have found 

 it hard to persuade those who knew its sluggish 

 habits, that it was fitted for other than a service- 

 able life. And without them, Mahomet, faring 

 forth into the desert, would have found a staying 

 hand upon his camel's bridle and the Widow of 

 Medina impertinently asking at what hour she 

 might expect him home. I know; for let me, 

 hke any other person, say that I am going off to 

 walk, that I have need of solitude, and there are 

 a hundred duties that intrude. The votary of 

 woods and fields is soon transformed to vestal, a 

 common bondsmaid of the hearth. Such rags and 

 tatters of the day as I may gather will do at 

 best for comfortable gossip. It is in the gleam- 

 ing widespread raiment of the morning that I 

 would set forth to commune. 



If I am to don it, I must announce a far dif- 

 ferent intention. Boldly must I make it known 

 that I am starting off to paint. But not, you 

 understand, so baldly. There must be prepara- 



[40] 



