"
The young man gazed about him in amazement. The place looked as though
it might have been abandoned the month before. In his subsequent sojourn
he began more accurately to gauge the reasons for this. Here were no
small boys to hurl the casual pebble through the delightfully shimmering
glass; here was no dust to be swirled into crevices and angles, no wind
to carry it; to this remote cove penetrated no vandals to rob, mutilate
or wantonly disfigure; and the elevation of the valley's floor was low
enough even to avoid the crushing weights of snow that every winter
brought to the peaks around it. Only the squirrels, the birds and the
tiny wood rats represented in their little way the forces of
destruction. Furthermore, the difficulties of transportation absolutely
precluded moving any of the small property whose absence so strongly
impresses the desertion of a building. When Bright's Cove moved, it had
merely to shut the front door. In some cases it did not shut the front
door.
Saleratus Bill assisted Bob from the saddle. This had become necessary,
for the long ride in bonds had so cramped and stiffened the young man
that he was unable to help himself.
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