14 TENANTS OF AN OLD FARM. 



Wc walked out, leaving the mistress brushiug tin; 

 mantelpiece, with a brightened look, for, thank God ! 

 her spouse had found at last a congenial outdoor 

 occupation. Not a new one, however, ])y an}- means. 

 Months afterward I learned that in the conspiracy for 

 my health between doctor and wife there had been 

 strong reliance upon a revival of the early tastes and 

 pursuits of a naturalist, which had been pushed to the 

 wall by engrossing business, to tide over a crisis, send the 

 invalid into the health-giving fields, and hold him there 

 content during the interval of rest. 



"It was a happy moment indeed," the mistress 

 said, " when the returning interest in your old studies, 

 announced at our parlor door, showed me that the spirit 

 of languor and decline had given back before a rising 

 current of vitality. It was a I'ed-letter morning, that, 

 in my life, and the rainbow of hope bent above the 

 old form-house the livelong day." 



Meanwhile, quite unconscious of the little woman's 

 secret joys, master and dog were tramping across the 

 meadow toward the small stream that threads the farm 

 known as Townes' Kun. The feathery grasses grew high 

 along the banks ; clumps of tall reeds stood in the little 

 basins like squads of grenadiers ; tufts of golden rod and 

 wild asters, weeds and youngling bushes overhung the 

 narrow channel. Yesterday I had found there, as I had 

 carelessly strode on, the snare of a friend of other days, 

 the Bank Argiope — Argiopc riitarm. I stooped to look 

 and admire the comel}' spider hanging upon her white 

 central shield. (Fig. 1.) 



