Robin Hood's Barn 



abundance of my own preserves. Awake, more- 

 over, to the insurgency of knowledge, I start each 

 summer resolute that I shall have no dealings 

 with these upstarts; that ignorance shall be the 

 price of past presumptions. They shall nip the 

 bristling tops from little cedars or munch their 

 field grass as though there were no better food. 

 But at last there comes a day when the first 

 peas are shelled. As they drum into the pan and 

 I feel them spring from under my prying fingers, 

 temptation stirs. How green and luscious they 

 look, those tight round jackets as they glisten 

 in the sunhght. How eagerly would they be 

 snuffed up; how searchingly each long rough 

 tongue would curl for the last pod. Before I 

 know it, I have stowed them in my basket and 

 am off to make my overtm"es. Warily my trip 

 is made and with avoidance of aU open places. 

 For let me come within the range of kitchen 

 windows and I shall meet with sharp arrest. 

 But at length, after carefvd reconnoitering, I 

 reach a place protected by a grove of maples, 

 and seated on the top of an embankment, I spread 

 my bait enticingly upon my lap. 

 [220] 



