to frsh raint, stel, aM   oorret.   A date on the barn comm    ates the 
foiu-iin fathers. T1e roof bristles with lghtnAn       mds, the  eatheroock
i 
'Ooud with a w gilt. Even the pigs look solvent. 
The old oaks in the woodlot are without isse. Tro Ie no heJgs, 
brash patches, fencerows, or other signs of shiftless lsbandry. Tit oorn-

field ha fat steers, but rz'ob---ly no quail. TZh  fences stand on narrow
ribbons 
of sod; whoever Dlrweu tiat close to bmrbed wires mast have been  aytitg
'Wate 
not, want not". 
In the oreekbottom pstu"$ flood-trash is lod md hie in the bushes. 
Th' creek ban4 are raw; ehmni1z of Illinois lyive sloughed off and move 
 sesa- 
ward. Ptchs, of giant rage4 T rk w'hre freAhets hve thrown down the silt

they  oulid  ot ciry. Just who ts solvent? Por how loag? 
Tm hilghw-y stretches like t taut tape across the corn, oats, An   clover

fields- the bus ticks off te orlalnt mile; the rnssewmrs talk and talk and

tak    Abc-ut whait?  Ab,:it   ~, azeball1, taxe. sa nn-li-laws,%-,f"ao

moviu, otors, and  buierls, bt never abrot the heavi   g   o      el of Illinois

that was3iez tta windows of the apse41ng bs. Illinois has no genesls, no
his- 
tor, no shoals or deeps, no tides of life and death. Illinois is only the

sea on which they sail to Trts unlonown.