Robin Hood's Barn 



than it was meet for Acteon to gaze on the fleet 

 form of Artemis. 



Not more welcome are you on the porch, for it 

 long since was taken over and converted to a 

 nursery and hospital for vagrants. At one end, 

 to be sure, there is a private room, decently with- 

 drawn, close-curtained with the broad flat leaves 

 of pipe-vine. This bed is, I think, perpetually 

 endowed. Certainly the same family of robins 

 refurbish it each spring and in late summer leave 

 it waiting, trim and tidy. But at the other end, 

 walled with wistaria and stanchioned by a climb- 

 ing briar, there is a public ward where berths are 

 given out without regard for race or creed or 

 color. Even English sparrows, pariahs from 

 all other charitable organizations, are given wel- 

 come here. Indeed, in the top tier they take the 

 advaiture of maternity like the coarse peasants 

 that they are, with a frank talk of all its signs 

 and symptoms. Certainly they shock their little 

 chirping cousin upon whom they look down with 

 no regard for her shy reticence and nervous 

 apprehension. 



It is because of her, however, that you may not 

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