[...] It is true that I have t always met the fine adventure r won the friend, but if I had, what should I have more to look for at other turnings and other hilltops? The afteron of my purchase was one of the great afterons of my life. When Horace put me down at my gate, I did t go at once to the house; I did t wish, then, to talk with Harriet. The things I had with myself were too important. I skulked toward my barn, compelling myself to walk slowly until I reached the corner, where I broke into an eager run as though the old Nick himself were after me. Behind the barn I dropped down on the grass, panting with laughter, and t without some of the shame a man feels at being a boy. Close along the side of the barn, as I sat there in the cool of the shade, I could see a tangled mat of smartweed and catnip, and the boards of the barn, brown and weather-beaten, and the gables above with mud swallows' nests, w deserted; and it struck me suddenly, as I observed these homely pleasant things: [...].