Strangers will come to see these places that Irving has written about and they will not find them. They might have been cared for and preserved, and they would have paid the interest on all it would cost to keep them from destruction. That was a good, honest plea, and as useless as it was earnest. The coursed-things still browses in our historic field, and is no monster after all, but just the world's ox, doing the world's work. He has been always browsing, and the clover has always been springing again at his heels. This book is a basket full of field fare that has been snatched from under his muzzle. If you do not want it he will come to it presently, and then, after deliberate scrutiny, the basket and its contents will go together.