64 TENANTS OF AN OLD FARM. 



ill the morning walk are laid upon the table, together 

 with (livers books of reference. The Mistress, the 

 schoolma'am and myself have seats at the table ; Hugh 

 Bond, the fanner, sits at the chimney side ; at his feet 

 sits his youngest boy, Harry, and opposite him are his 

 son Joe, a stout lad of seventeen, and his daughter 

 Jenny, a young woman of nineteen, who is established 

 at Highwood as one of our handmaids. Old Dan, some- 

 what more modestly, sits on a cricket at the side of the 

 door that opens into the kitchen. 



In the days of Farmer Townes the room in which 

 we sit was the " living-room " of the family, the 

 kitchen serving for the dining-room as well. We have 

 made the best of the builder's plans, and converted it 

 into a dining and sitting-room jointly and severally. A 

 snug and comfortable place it is, too, with its great 

 wood fire roaring in the chimney ! 



We are a democratic company, observe, and Avhy 

 not ? for we are gathered for the study of natural sci- 

 ence, and science knows no caste ; besides it is the 

 good wife's doing, and came about in this Avise : 



The advent of the master and schoolma'am, as they 

 entered the gate after their morning walk, with hands 

 full of divers specimens and others fluttering from the 

 master's hatband, had created quite a sensation at 

 Highwood. It Avas midday, the dinner-hour on an 

 American farm, a custom come of descent doubtless 

 from the European "dejeuner," Avith Avhich meal, at 

 least, both in character and time, as noAv served upon 

 the Continent, it precisely corresponds. Tlie entire 



