| Show imes wib L I 1 ha N T WAS a farm house of the colonial time built before the architects were about it was broad at the bottom but broader at the top with eaves where the swallows could nest in communal form force and the eaves reached down so BO low to the ground that I 1 have myself ridden off the rear slope from the big chimney and dashed into a 8 snowdrift and none the worse for it there were snow piles in those days bayst I 1 almost to the eaves themselves I 1 and under those eaves god bless them there were warm hearts and there were also aho doughnuts in huge piles and pumpkin pies la in rows and there were other comforts tor for no one had then discovered bacteria and I 1 we were in no danger from eating good food when we got cold outdoors we could go inside I 1 and be warmed internally the house bouse was painted red tor for that was waa the warm color like the fire in the chimney and I 1 know no other reason why nil all old time farm houses were of that color only the front was white and there were green blinds I 1 think it was the fashion and the time never was when anyone would be out of fashion innovators nova tors and radicals excepted rash fashion lon you must know Is simply doing what others do and not bothering your head about it and believing what others believe alth just as little trouble to yo yourself urselL it Is a beautiful way of keeping us nu all ane alike for or what might come of it it if no two ever did the same thing or believed the same thing or wore the same bame coat or tor for that arat matter loved the same game person the old time people had bad a reo rea son oa tor for the catechism it was a good one it kept ithem them all together like a regiment nowadays boere there are some who would een throw away the dictionary and spell the lord knows how just as each one pleases over the double door reached the big arms anna of a treat great butternut do you know there lit Is no tree in lill all the world so hou hopeful reful as a Vutter butternut T its arms lere uke like those ot of a father and it has not a stingy trait about it IL then you should lie as I 1 have in september and hear of a night the null falling off one or two or three at a time on the roof rat bat tat ta tat until our dreams were furl full of the joya of the morning or for that matter even of the puddings which should come com of it when the meats were enough to till fin a big bowl yes indeed I 1 a butternut pudding with a planty of cider Is good even in dreamland to the back of the house was an orchard where gerls and Pear maing I 1 grew some of the trees leaned to so that we could walk vp tip them and sit with the birds 1 I when a boy knew a robin so BO well that she built her nest within five feet of me while I 1 whistled and talked to her to the side gide of the orchard stood a one fine grove ot of basswood in which were fifty hives of bees in two long houses two rows in each house there Is nothing so wonderful in the world as an apple orchard in blossom it Is lit fit for worship the trees are am friendly and hearty their arms come low law down to the tha ground as if reaching after us what wealth of blossom I 1 there Is no suggestion 0 ot niggardliness ali ah even now I 1 see the old grandmother in her chair when the petals camo came down in a great shower and laid lovingly on her white hair and the blessed mother beside her al also nature loved them there was a sweet fitness and when we boys came to their side and brought the ripest Pear mains and lady sweets and otherwise identified them with the fruit it was out of our hearts but how shall I 1 ever get to new years tears at this rate for I 1 am not yet half around the house and my soul will not let me hurry on to as set things and hear things when they happen Is well enough but ch ah to have them in ones self and be able to call them out of the memory that Is worth the while rig better than any phonograph i there was an offset in t tle the turf just beyond the harvest pear and this was where the little mother had her pinks arid and poppies pop ples and bachelor buttons and cinnamon roses and johnnie jump ups lips it was a place of marvelous beauty and of marvelous work of f that I 1 can testify but it was delicious in the early morning before the day was on a gridiron and again after sundown you yon should have seen been the little mother and granny williams or some other one going about this treasure island in the midst of the world ah abial and all ah thail it smells like a fresh young babe said granny williams indeed raid the little mother but I 1 hod had not thought of that but as n likely ns as not for it has a soft pinkish yellow color then she would snuff at t it like any acy professor examining a new chemical all AH the time she was gathering la ba be tier r apron dropped rose leaves and poppy leaves to press between the leaves of the big bible A little down the slope lay the vegetable garden of my father full of long narrow beds all turned over each year by the spade and the spine oh lord I 1 but yet I 1 have the memory of it tn in toy my back bach why had bad they not Iliou thought glit of gardens to be furrowed by horsepower but they bad not nol I 1 think because they were yet too full of old england find and a yankee was after all the roost most imitative creature in the world lie he shook his flat and wagged his tongue like the great bell at moscow ilo scow at the world englishman but tor for all that he was himself english both in his stomach and in his head ile he not only spaded his gardere but mt be e took his snuff like an englishman and he built his fence after an english pattern what elst else could explain why he had so many little yards about our house and built our house close down by the road As it if we were crowded into a little island and had not room enough to turn around in we are more independent now and really are getting some notions of our own but then our house stood only a li fr tones throw from the highway and there was a little box of a yard in front and tills this was full of locust trees and honey borrey suckles and there at night the honey moths would come and play high spy in the blossoms george III our great gray cat would sit down domn to look at one that came too near mar for what was ita it a bird or a butterfly and like all of us he was B s bit of a naturalist ne he liked very much macli to classify the world but never hesitated to put the choicest specimens in his big stomach which Is I 1 see the way with other scientists they will eat a as quick as a pig but you should have seen the tiong as they grew in rows all about the vegetable beds tor for our father also had bad an eye to ta beauty did tie he not set act hollyhocks hollyhock is all about his corn fields T then when hen the great stalks of crimson and gold stood up in summer and the folk that went by to church stopped to look with admiration he be said truly I ruly one shall not live by bread alone ano and he be liked best those neighbors who looked the longest as ag the little mother liked best U st those who ate roost most of her goodies the saffron and dill 1111 wa and the rue and rosemary and carraway and fennel end and the mints grew by the brook that ran down anck of the house and garden and indeed there were also more of these herbs that stood atonya in the place piece of a family doctor indeed you my may look but it was not so bad nn an exchange and as for the notions they may have been no worse than the guesses of the profession nowadays there Is no good living where there tire ore no n brooks and this was a brook of the first water it bubbled out of a rocky hollow some gome little secret acrel cavern bed and then it laughed and tumbled for half a mile before it got over its fun the little mother in summer would mould walk with us there and ohp would sometimes say now letus let us go father over to the glen where the bigger brook la Is and the ferns and the witch baZel and the yellow birch and the oh ob it WAS glo rivos fun but at night after work the dear father would come early from the field and say now lot let tw all go for strawberries then oh eh lint how mu I 1 tell you such delicious joys you know nothing of wild mild strawberries much less do you know the delight of creeping about the meadows and flown down by the stumps in the postures pastures while the bobolink whistles and the brooks guri gurgled led as we gathered the long stems that lay lovingly against the rh grass where are we I 1 had no business out of season seaon and in to take you through snow banks to pick strawberries but such tricks the memory plays we will u III get at once back to the house the front door is as you see opens just in the middle in halves andstrom and that the hall runs hock n as strai straight gb as a puritans nose nore right through everything till it lands landa in the big kitchen and the two halves of the door swing open separately I 1 know not why it was unless it were an inheritance from pioneer days when it was well to be able to look out and parley a little before opening the way for an indian rush bo 60 at any rate all tho doors in those days were cut across the lie middle in the big yard was the woodshed and that was wa full of piles of wood mood as dry an ai tinder it was wag the comfort of winter and the very right arm of a successful home from the woodshed we all went kicking first the dirt from our boots into the grent great living room where we were all together over this door was twined with care a great bittersweet and ull all over the stone curb of the well was a wild mild white flowering clematis cle matle father said the little priestess als ug as well to cultivate the beautiful and enjoy it why acy a tw should it all be shut up in books it Is so is said my father god made the world and he put the flowers here as well as the potatoes I 1 have no patience with those who do not follow god to be sure said my little mother and the weeds are here to teach us diligence and patience 11 cut but the quack said my father that might as well be left out and the burd murdocks burdocks bur docks oclis said slie she are excellent for beer and the leaves are good for draughts perhaps it if we could see it said lie an all things are arc good rig for or us to make the best of everything said she and as our jim came up she put her hand on his a arm and on mine and then said slowly alls a world in which we can make beautiful boys and girls it if first we ourselves are right what more could we aska and the birds ah but you should have seen bo bow they nested about that house they NI will eat nil fill the cherries said my uncle george and he be rapped his cane lustily ou on the floor of the porch but our father smiled and said let us count them all into pur our family and plant for them also when we plant 11 so lie put in a few rows of peas more and said they are for the or orioles loles and a dozen cherry trees dom down n by the alie fence were were for the robins and tor for the cedar birds who ho have a cherry tooth then he went vp up to the woods edge nearby the big beeches beaches bee ches where here there were wild cherries and into these he put scions of finer sorts for the birds my boys so the robins and the bluebirds and the m wrens rens find and indigo birds and the gold finches cinches fin ches and the catbirds cat birds and all other sorts of thrushes and finches cinches fin ches and I 1 cant tell you how bow many more came to us and they filled the trees with nests and they paid for nil all they took in song and helpful labor and a robin built its nest in the window seat of his bedroom and song sang to him in the morning while lie he lay in his bed AN ah yes yea they worked well together my father and the birds the barn was not tar far away als mb not decent said the little mother there should be shade tor for the cows and the pigs and the hens you are right little mother geld sald my father und and he brought a loud load of willow sticks and ile be planted them all the way around the barn and its yard and these grew and throve mightily and tit at last they were a great prove grove that hint hung all over the barn and hid IL it the little mother said did I 1 not tell you and then she drew the breath coolly through one corner of her mouth as she surveyed surveyed 1 the transformation indeed youdia you did little mortier you said it and no one fine would have lone done it had bad you not and the liens hens ca cackled klel their delight and the cows coms at night lay down facing the moon as it sifted in between the leaves and nil all day they were nicely comforted from the sun anil and when old dalsy daisy went to the tub to drink she would look up batu between een sips as if to the lord lie be praised for this shady yard A true barnyard ani nyard IR 1 a delightful place full of pence and love iilah the collie comes and puts her head through the gate once nn an hour and surveying matters says anys yes nil all Is as it should be nil all Is correct then she roe back to run mn along where here jim and I 1 and our father are nt at work in the or if it iiii he und and it really Is or it ought to lie new years lily she looks in tit nt the lie kitchen window anil and waits till we open the door that she may curl up by the ire fire but george III pets up tip on his hind feet to the door latch and rattles it an tanil then aits nits till we let him in A true eat cut Is half ali ah it if but if they could once get alint would come of it it IR 1 well mell that they cannot tor for they would rout tout out and dl half nr more of the burnan sort sit with quack and thistles whistles es end talking and collie dues dogs we should be made either wiser miser or killed oll iff come callie 11 said eald my uncle georce let us anike our new years call I 1 in those anys it II wes not yet yd forgotten to be neighborly and once a year we till nil expected to look in on earb other find and break bread or at least cut enke and we ant down to a bit of gossip and exchanged news and when it was over orver ever body knew fill all about everybody else and thet e was no need nt at all to print it it but I 1 shall tell you yon nothing nt at all about it it wn was our own business and we were simple folks and aou oa who live today have your big notions and your new ways find you laugh too easily so our new years day went by in its ita own homely way and we had our calls and we went home at night and rubbed alir our hands and our stomachs and were content not one of us envied your telephones and I 1 telegraphs and other knick knacks or ever gave them a thought bless bler ts the lord enough Is enough and it Is not lively likely you hove have tiny more idea den of whit will III te about a hundred years from now I 1 indeed I 1 think they will mill mil call you dut but aliat liat a orail horld of if conceit it Is |
