high; but this did not distress us, though in our parlor, a room
twenty-eight feet long, the effect was always peculiar.

The grounds around the house were not laid out. It was simply a
case of a house set on a little elevation, in the center of a rather
rough lawn, and without a path or a flower-bed, no shrubs and but
few trees.

I hired a man with plow and horse for a day or two and we made
a path from the piazza to the road, set out an arbor-vitae hedge,
made two or three small flower-beds, and had the kitchen-garden
ploughed.

The man planted the potatoes and corn in a field next the garden,
but the kitchen garden was my hobby, and with all the enthusiasm
of a child with a new toy I took personal possession of it.

About an acre in extent, fenced and almost entirely free from even
small stones, the soil was rich and productive. I met with wonderful
success, and the crops that I raised, in their earliness and size,
astonished the natives.

Every pleasant morning I was up at five o'clock, and after a bowl
of crackers and milk, worked for two or three hours. Then a bath,
followed by breakfast, and after a day in town, which, owing to
dull business, I made very short, I was back in the afternoon at
work again.

How I did enjoy those days.