Robin Hood's Barn 



In short, I have never been a wind-break. 

 Gales surge above that never reach me. Mares' 

 tails whisk across an open sky and never catch 

 upon my crown. A mackerel sky will lower and 

 still not rest its sullenness upon my roof. Hud- 

 dled close along the base of nobler structures, 

 I intercept at best ground flurries. Only such 

 unpleasant httle gusts as otherwise would whirl 

 into a corner, only such spiteful little puflFs as 

 would find a niche for spiral or for eddy, do I 

 make it my business to send glancing off. 



How it happened thus I could not tell you. 

 For my family considered architecturally, are 

 Gothic: Their passions have a loftiness about 

 them and go soaring upward to a dizzy peak. 

 Their prejudices raise sharp battlements, their 

 dislikes will shut like massive doors. Their con- 

 victions, too, fly out like buttresses with an oppos- 

 ing jog and thrust. And whereas you might 

 walk around my smooth exterior and not discover 

 where I pointed, their base you would immedi- 

 ately recognize as square and built to face north 

 east. 

 You will be wise then if you visit me but in 

 [262] 



