personal picturesqueness which he had when he came in out of the
barn, at his mother's call, to receive Sewell.

"Yes," said the boy.

"I don't mean," continued Sewell, "that I wouldn't have you continue
to make verses whenever you have the leisure for it. I think, on the
contrary, that it will give a grace to your life which it might
otherwise lack. We are all in daily danger of being barbarised by
the sordid details of life; the constantly recurring little duties
which must be done, but which we must not allow to become the whole
of life." Sewell was so much pleased with this thought, when it had
taken form in words, that he made a mental note of it for future
use. "We must put a border of pinks around the potato-patch, as
Emerson would say, or else the potato-patch is no better than a
field of thistles." Perhaps because the logic of this figure rang a
little false, Sewell hastened to add: "But there are many ways in
which we can prevent the encroachment of those little duties without
being tempted to neglect them, which would be still worse. I have
thought a good deal about the condition of our young men in the
country, and I have sympathised with them in what seems their want
of opportunity, their lack of room for expansion. I have often
wished that I could do something for them--help them in their doubts
and misgivings, and perhaps find some way out of the trouble for
them. I regret this tendency to the cities of the young men from the
country. I am sure that if we could give them some sort of social
and intellectual life at home, they would not be so restless and
dissatisfied."

Sewell felt as if he had been preaching to a dead wall; but now the