the building, it gave quite a
number of severe tumbles to the women and children. Everybody complained
of it, but nobody mended it, though a single stout nail would have held
it fast. One dark night a pig broke loose, and, snuffing and smelling
around the premises in search of forage, came upon the loose step, and,
imagining that he scented a supper in its neighborhood, used his snout
so vigorously as to push it clear away from the door. One of the girls,
hearing the noise, stepped out into the yard to see what was going on;
but the step being gone, and she not observing it, down she went on her
face, striking her nose on the edge of a bucket which some one had left
exactly in the wrong place, and breaking the bone so badly that she will
carry a very homely face as long as she lives. It was a very painful
hurt to the poor girl, and the family all grieved over her misfortune;
but not one of the men undertook to mend the step. Finally, the mother
managed to drive down two sticks in front of it, which held it up to the
house, though not half so firmly as would have been done by a couple of
good stout nails.

Things were very much in the same condition all over the premises. The
fence round the garden, and in fact all about the house, was dropping to
pieces simply for want of a nail here and there. The barn-yard enclosure
was strong enough to keep the cattle in, but it was a curious exhibition
of hasty patch-work, that would hurt the eye of any mechanic to look at.
As to the gates, every one of them rested at one end on the ground. It
was hard work even for a man to open and shut them, as they had to be
lifted clear up before they could be moved an inch. For a half-grown
boy to open them was really a very serious undertaking, especially in
muddy weather. The posts had sagged, or the upper staples had drawn out,
but nobody attended to putting them to rights, though it would not have
been an hour's job to make them all swing as freely as every good
farm-gate ought to. The barn-yard was a hard place for the boys on this
farm.

No touch of whitewash had been spread over either house, or fence, or
outbuilding, for many years, though lime is known to everybody as being
one of the surest preservers of wood-work, as well as the very cheapest,
while it so beautifully sets off a farm-house to see its surroundings
covered once a year with a fresh coat of white. The hen-house was of
course equally neglected, though whitewash is so wel