ul land
of mountain and valley they would have sought in vain for a lovelier
spot. Sheltered by high hills from the bleak winds of the north and
east, it was still sufficiently elevated to permit a wide view of the
farms and forests around it. Close below, with only a short, steep
bank, and a wide strip of meadow land between, lay Merle pond, the very
loveliest of the many lovely lakelets, hidden away among these
mountains. Over on the rising ground beyond the pond stood the
meeting-house, and scattered to the right and left of it were the white
houses of the village, half-hidden by the tall elms and maples that
fringed the village street. Close by the farm-house, between it and the
thick pine grove on the hill, ran Carson's brook, a stream which did not
disappear in summer-time, as a good many of these hill streams are apt
to do, and which, for several months in the year was almost as worthy of
the name of river as the Merle itself. Before the house was a large
grassy yard, having many rose-bushes and lilac trees scattered along the
fences and the path that led to the door. There were shade trees, too.
Once they had stood in regular lines along the road, and round the large
garden. Some of these had been injured because of the insufficient
fences of late years; but those that remained were trees worthy of the
name of trees. There were elms whose branches nearly touched each
other, from opposite sides of the wide yard; and great maples that grew
as symmetrically in the open space, as though each spring they had been
clipped and cared for by experienced hands. There had been locusts
once, but the old trees had mostly died, and there were only a few young
ones springing up here and there, but they were trees before the
children went away from the place which they were now beginning to look
upon as home.

Formerly, there had been a large and handsome garden laid out at the end
of the house, but since trouble had come on the family, its cultivation
had been considered too much expense, and the grass was growing green on
its squares and borders now. There were a few perennials easy to
cultivate; and annuals such as sow themselves, marigolds and pansies.
There was balm in abundance, and two or three gigantic peonies, in their
season the admiration of all passers by; and beds of useful herbs,
wormwood and sage, and summer savory. But, though it looked like a
wilderness of weeds the first day they came to see it, Jan