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necessary. He was, to all appearance, on the plains where Bincleaves
Farm was afterwards established, between what are now called Spring
Gardens and the Parsonage House. Homesteads and cottages occupy the
place of waste lands. Sometimes less than a century separates a steppe
from a city.
Suddenly, a lull having occurred in the icy blast which was blinding
him, he perceived, at a short distance in front of him, a cluster of
gables and of chimneys shown in relief by the snow. The reverse of a
silhouette--a city painted in white on a black horizon, something like
what we call nowadays a negative proof. Roofs--dwellings--shelter! He
had arrived somewhere at last. He felt the ineffable encouragement of
hope. The watch of a ship which has wandered from her course feels some
such emotion when he cries, "Land ho!"
He hurried his steps.
At length, then, he was near mankind. He would soon be amidst living
creatures. There was no longer anything to fear. There glowed within him
that sudden warmth--security; that out of which he was emerging was
over; thenceforward there would no longer be night, nor winter, nor
tempest. It seemed to him that he had left all evil chances behind him.
The infant was no longer a burden. He almost ran.
His eyes were fixed on the roofs. There was life there. He never took
his eyes off them. A dead man might gaze thus on what might appear
through the half-opened lid of his sepulchre. There were the chimneys of
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