{"product_id":"2940012250766","title":"THE PIAZZA TALES","description":"THE PIAZZA\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e   BARTLEBY\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e   BENITO CERENO\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e   THE LIGHTNING-ROD MAN\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e   THE ENCANTADAS; OR, ENCHANTED ISLANDS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e   THE BELL-TOWER\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE PIAZZA.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \"With fairest flowers,\u003cbr\u003e  Whilst summer lasts, and I live here, Fidele--\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen I removed into the country, it was to occupy an old-fashioned\u003cbr\u003efarm-house, which had no piazza--a deficiency the more regretted,\u003cbr\u003ebecause not only did I like piazzas, as somehow combining the coziness\u003cbr\u003eof in-doors with the freedom of out-doors, and it is so pleasant to\u003cbr\u003einspect your thermometer there, but the country round about was such a\u003cbr\u003epicture, that in berry time no boy climbs hill or crosses vale without\u003cbr\u003ecoming upon easels planted in every nook, and sun-burnt painters\u003cbr\u003epainting there. A very paradise of painters. The circle of the stars cut\u003cbr\u003eby the circle of the mountains. At least, so looks it from the house;\u003cbr\u003ethough, once upon the mountains, no circle of them can you see. Had the\u003cbr\u003esite been chosen five rods off, this charmed ring would not have been.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe house is old. Seventy years since, from the heart of the Hearth\u003cbr\u003eStone Hills, they quarried the Kaaba, or Holy Stone, to which, each\u003cbr\u003eThanksgiving, the social pilgrims used to come. So long ago, that, in\u003cbr\u003edigging for the foundation, the workmen used both spade and axe,\u003cbr\u003efighting the Troglodytes of those subterranean parts--sturdy roots of a\u003cbr\u003esturdy wood, encamped upon what is now a long land-slide of sleeping\u003cbr\u003emeadow, sloping away off from my poppy-bed. Of that knit wood, but one\u003cbr\u003esurvivor stands--an elm, lonely through steadfastness.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhoever built the house, he builded better than he knew; or else Orion\u003cbr\u003ein the zenith flashed down his Damocles' sword to him some starry night,\u003cbr\u003eand said, \"Build there.\" For how, otherwise, could it have entered the\u003cbr\u003ebuilder's mind, that, upon the clearing being made, such a purple\u003cbr\u003eprospect would be his?--nothing less than Greylock, with all his hills\u003cbr\u003eabout him, like Charlemagne among his peers.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNow, for a house, so situated in such a country, to have no piazza for\u003cbr\u003ethe convenience of those who might desire to feast upon the view, and\u003cbr\u003etake their time and ease about it, seemed as much of an omission as if a\u003cbr\u003epicture-gallery should have no bench; for what but picture-galleries are\u003cbr\u003ethe marble halls of these same limestone hills?--galleries hung, month\u003cbr\u003eafter month anew, with pictures ever fading into pictures ever fresh.\u003cbr\u003eAnd beauty is like piety--you cannot run and read it; tranquillity and\u003cbr\u003econstancy, with, now-a-days, an easy chair, are needed. For though, of\u003cbr\u003eold, when reverence was in vogue, and indolence was not, the devotees of\u003cbr\u003eNature, doubtless, used to stand and adore--just as, in the cathedrals\u003cbr\u003eof those ages, the worshipers of a higher Power did--yet, in these times\u003cbr\u003eof failing faith and feeble knees, we have the piazza and the pew.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDuring the first year of my residence, the more leisurely to witness the\u003cbr\u003ecoronation of Charlemagne (weather permitting, they crown him every\u003cbr\u003esunrise and sunset), I chose me, on the hill-side bank near by, a royal\u003cbr\u003elounge of turf--a green velvet lounge, with long, moss-padded back;\u003cbr\u003ewhile at the head, strangely enough, there grew (but, I suppose, for\u003cbr\u003eheraldry) three tufts of blue violets in a field-argent of wild\u003cbr\u003estrawberries; and a trellis, with honeysuckle, I set for canopy. Very\u003cbr\u003emajestical lounge, indeed. So much so, that here, as with the reclining\u003cbr\u003emajesty of Denmark in his orchard, a sly ear-ache invaded me. But, if\u003cbr\u003edamps abound at times in Westminster Abbey, because it is so old, why\u003cbr\u003enot within this monastery of mountains, which is older?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA piazza must be had.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe house was wide--my fortune narrow; so that, to build a panoramic\u003cbr\u003epiazza, one round and round, it could not be--although, indeed,\u003cbr\u003econsidering the matter by rule and square, the carpenters, in the\u003cbr\u003ekindest way, were anxious to gratify my furthest wishes, at I've\u003cbr\u003eforgotten how much a foot.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUpon but one of the four sides would prudence grant me what I wanted.\u003cbr\u003eNow, which side?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTo the east, that long camp of the Hearth Stone Hills, fading far away\u003cbr\u003etowards Quito; and every fall, a small white flake of something peering\u003cbr\u003esuddenly, of a coolish morning, from the topmost cliff--the season's\u003cbr\u003enew-dropped lamb, its earliest fleece; and then the Christmas dawn,\u003cbr\u003edraping those dim highlands with red-barred plaids and tartans--goodly\u003cbr\u003esight from your piazza, that. Goodly sight; but, to the north is\u003cbr\u003eCharlemagne--can't have the Hearth Stone Hills with Charlemagne.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47145251602672,"sku":"2940012250766","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012250766_p0.jpg?v=1763554118","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012250766","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}