His whole future seemed destined to be simple and pleasant, for he was resolved to do his best to make the town like him, and there seemed little opportunity for complications in a town that could all be seen at one glance.
Strangers think all small towns simple.

The few stores are all plainly labeled, the streets run at right angles, and the houses are set well apart, like big letters in a primer.

A small town looks like a story without a plot, like: "See the cat.

Does the can see me?
The cat sees the dog;" beside which a city is as unfathomable as a Henry James paragraph.

To the stranger each man and woman he meets is a complete individual, each standing alone, like letters on an alphabet block, and not easily to be confused, one with the other.