s is the way country people manage."

"Glorious!" thought I. And my wife and I could scarce sleep, all night,
for the brilliancy of our anticipations!

To be sure our delight was somewhat damped the next day by the coldness
with which my good old uncle, Jeremiah Standfast, who happened along at
precisely this crisis, listened to our visions.

"You'll find it _pleasant_, children, in the summer time," said the
hard-fisted old man, twirling his blue-checked pocket handkerchief; "but
I'm sorry you've gone in debt for the land."

"O, but we shall soon save that--it's so much cheaper living in the
country!" said both of us together.

"Well, as to that, I don't think it is to city-bred folks."

Here I broke in with a flood of accounts of Mr. B.'s peach trees, and
Mrs. B.'s strawberries, butter, apricots, etc.., etc..; to which the old
gentleman listened with such a long, leathery, unmoved quietude of
visage as quite provoked me, and gave me the worst possible opinion of
his judgment. I was disappointed too; for, as he was reckoned one of the
best practical farmers in the county, I had counted on an enthusiastic
sympathy with all my agricultural designs.

"I tell you what, children," he said, "a body can live in the country,
as you say, amazin' cheap; but then a body must _know how_"--and my
uncle spread his pocket handkerchief thoughtfully out upon his knees,
and shook his head gravely.

I thought him a terribly slow, stupid old body, and wondered how I had
always entertained so high an opinion of his sense.

"He is evidently getting old," said I to my wife; "his judgment is not
what it used to be."

At all events, our place was bought, and we moved out, well pleased, the
first morning in April, not at all remembering the ill savor of that day
for matters of wisdom. Our place was a pretty cottage, about two miles
from the city, with grounds that had been tastefully laid out. There was
no lack of winding paths, arbors, flower borders, and rosebushes, with
which my wife was especially pleased. There was a little green lot,
strolling off down to a brook, with a thick grove of trees at the end,
where our cow was to be pastured.

The first week or two went on happily enough in getting our little new
pet of a house into trimness and good order; for, as it had been long
for sale, of course there was any amount of little repairs that had been
left to amuse the leisure hours of the purchaser. Here a door step had
given aw