' malice. Never
did. All I wanted was what the place was wo'th--to him. 'Twa'n't wo'th
nothin' to me! He's got the house and the ten acres around it, and he's
got the house on Lion's Head, includin' the Clearin', that the poottiest
picnic-ground in the mountains. Think of goin' up there this summer?"

"No," said Westover, briefly.

"Well, I some wish you did. I sh'd like to know how Jeff's improvements
struck you. Of course, I can't judge of 'em so well, but I guess he's
made a pootty sightly thing of it. He told me he'd had one of the
leadin' Boston architects to plan the thing out for him, and I tell you
he's got something nice. 'Tain't so big as old Lion's Head, and Jeff
wants to cater to a different style of custom, anyway. The buildin's
longer'n what she is deep, and she spreads in front so's to give as many
rooms a view of the mountain as she can. Know what 'runnaysonce' is?
Well, that's the style Jeff said it was; it's all pillars and pilasters;
and you ride up to the office through a double row of colyums, under a
kind of a portico. It's all painted like them old Colonial houses down
on Brattle Street, buff and white. Well, it made me think of one of them
old pagan temples. He's got her shoved along to the south'ard, and he's
widened out a piece of level for her to stand on, so 't that piece o'
wood up the hill there is just behind her, and I tell you she looks
nice, backin' up ag'inst the trees. I tell you, Jeff's got a head on
him! I wish you could see that dinin'-room o' his: all white colyums,
and frontin' on the view. Why, that devil's got a regular little
theatyre back o' the dinin'-room for the young folks to act ammyture
plays in, and the shows that come along, and he's got a dance-hall
besides; the parlors ain't much--folks like to set in the office; and
a good many of the rooms are done off into soots, and got their own
parlors. I tell you, it's swell, as they say. You can order what you
please for breakfast, but for lunch and dinner you got to take what Jeff
gives you; but he treats you well. He's a Durgin, when it comes to that.
Served in cou'ses, and dinner at seven o'clock. I don't know where he
got his money for 't all, but I guess he put in his insurance fust, and
then he put a mortgage on the buildin'; be as much as owned it; said
he'd had a splendid season last year, and if he done as well for a
copule of seasons more he'd have the whole prop'ty free o' debt."

Westover could see that the pro