A Tale of Two Martins 
the pond and the cottage. But what 
made it all look so different ? It seemed 
to their astonished eyes as if the town, 
the great noisy, dirty town, had grown 
since they had been away—as if it 
had stretched out great arms of bricks 
and mortar, with which it had 
swallowed up the green fields and leafy 
lanes that they remembered so_ well. 
The pleasant orchards had gone, and 
the fields, so quiet and peaceful, had also 
gone. And in their place were rows 
and rows of new houses. Instead of 
the quiet lane bordered with hawthorn, 
among which the bees droned and 
buzzed, and where the gnats danced in 
the sunshine, there was a hideous street 
of bright red-brick houses all exactly 
alike. At the corner stood a staring 
public-house ; and outside were two 
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