n-master over the way; and when we
strayed off to the Glen after dinner, we were as free from disturbing
noise as though our country had not been born ninety-seven years ago.
But although noisy demonstrations do not seem the fashion here (perhaps
owing to the predominance of Quakers in the neighborhood), the dormant
enthusiasm of the people for the Fourth was aroused at sundown, when a
mass meeting was held at the tavern, or "Chappaqua Hotel" as it is
grandly styled, and lengthy and energetic speeches were delivered.
From our piazza we could hear the orators' voices ascending to a very
high key as they warmed with their topic, and quite congratulated
ourselves that we were not obliged to be of the audience.

After dark there was a small display of Roman candles and sky-rockets;
and so ended the glorious Fourth.

_July 6_.

I have again dreamed away an entire morning upon the piazza of the
house in the woods--to me the stillest, sweetest spot in the world. I
have described this dear old house and its romantic surroundings again
and again since I have been here this summer. I can scarcely turn over
half a dozen leaves of my journal without finding some allusion to it;
but it is a subject possessing such fascination for me that I must
again revert to it. I like to pass a quiet hour upon the steps of the
piazza, or upon the large moss-grown boulder in front of the house
where Ida, Raphael, and Gabrielle have all played; and while my fingers
are busily employed with some fanciful design wrought with gold thread
or emerald-green silk,

"My thoughts wander on at their own sweet will,";

oftenest returning, however, to Aunt Mary's life here in the woods with
her little children. A lonely, comfortless life many women would have
deemed it, so entirely shut in as she was from the outer world; and to
any one less self-reliant and self-sustained than Aunt Mary it would
have been so. For that there were discomforts in her country life I do
not doubt, although they were much lessened by uncle's easy
circumstances; and the house itself was finished off with all the city
improvements and conveniences practicable to introduce into a building
of its size and situation. Still, the house was distant from good
markets, and the trees encircled it so closely that the sun's rays did
not penetrate the rooms until ten o'clock; but Aunt Mary loved her
trees as though they were human, and at that time would not allow one
to be cut d