NOTHING NEW. 93 



builded the barns and the farm-houses, and planted the shade 

 trees which overshadow them. 



Alas ! it is too true, as any one can know who travels through 

 the Massachusetts towns, not on railroads, but by the old town 

 and county roads. When I have been driving about the 

 country, I have paused more than once to contemplate the 

 desolated appearance, the forlorn aspect of some of these an- 

 cient farm-houses. They were not, perhaps, what the archi- 

 tect of these days would call beautiful, yet they were like the 

 houses which Socrates would have called beautiful. He rea- 

 soned on the subject thus : — " Should not he, who purposes to 

 have a house such as it ought to be, contrive that it may be 

 most pleasant, and, at the same time, most useful to live in ? " 

 This being admitted, he said, " Is it not then pleasant to have 

 it cool in summer and warm in winter ? " When his hearers 

 had assented to this, he said, " In houses, then, that look to the 

 south does not the sun, in the winter, shine into the porticoes, 

 while in the summer it passes over our heads, and above the 

 roof, and casts a shade ? Ought we not to build the parts 

 towards the south higher, that the sun in winter may not be 

 shut out, and the parts towards the north lower, that the cold 

 winds may not fall violently on them ? To sum up the matter 

 briefly, that would be the most pleasant and the most beautiful 

 residence in which the owner, at all seasons, would find the 

 most satisfactory retreat, and deposit what belongs to him with 

 the greatest safety." As if they had brought the art of build- 

 ing from ancient Greece, so did our ancestors construct their 

 houses on a southern slope, fronting to the sun, high in front, 

 and low in the rear. We used to hear them called " salt-box 

 houses " ; for in every one of these houses there used to be a 

 salt-box, shaped precisely like the house. 



I am not to be reckoned among the oldest persons here to- 

 day, but I have seen many of these New England farm-houses ; 

 and comfortable, inviting places they were. There was the 

 long kitchen, with its broad, deep fire-place in which a half- 

 cord of wood could be piled and .fired on festive nights. What 

 suppers, what sports there were after a spinning bee, or a quilt- 

 ing bee, or a corn husking! What Thanksgiving feasts! 

 What birthday rejoicings, what wedding festivals, those old 

 kitchens witnessed ! The fire on the wide hearths never went 



