Robin Hood's Barn 



and made broad its eaves to give a generous and 

 lasting shelter. Staunch it stood, timbered with 

 great beams. The ehns which surged around it 

 had not struck a deeper root. But the other 

 houses were of a new domestic architecture, con- 

 structed hastily, scrub growth arising from the 

 boles of old out-buUdings and low-lying sheds. 

 Slant of roof and width of front, dovecot still 

 worn cap-a-pie, told of the forced conversion from 

 an earlier purpose. Where there was narrow 

 entrance, a wider door had once stood open to 

 the garnering of crops. The small bungalows, 

 waist deep in grass, told plainly that they had 

 kept, not chosen, a humility of rafters to which 

 fowls at dusk had fluttered up to roost. Sum- 

 mer cottages, these now were advertised. Yet 

 they wore their new adornments with no swag- 

 ger of prosperity and rising fortunes. Rather 

 with a tolerant good humor. Though they had 

 put on porch and stoop, they could not put on 

 airs. It was only when it came to simple human 

 needs that they were willing to oblige. 



So inconspicuous was the position which I was 

 to occupy among them that it was hard to find. 



[58] 



