University of Virginia Library

I.

.... Life in the country may be
compared to the aimless drifting of a house-dog
professing to busy himself about a lawn. He goes
nosing about, tacking and turning here and there
with the most intense apparent earnestness; and
finally seizes a blade of grass by the middle, chews it
savagely, drops it, gags comically, and curls away
to sleep as if worn out with some mighty exercise.
Whatever pursuit you may engage in in the country
is sure to end in nausea, which you are quite as
sure to try to get recognised as fatigue.