170 Landscape hardening 



see it, and "liked the place tolerably well," yet there 

 seemed to be a want of heart about it, that made it unat- 

 tractive, and prevented people from buying it. 



It was a good while in the market; but at last it fell into 

 the hands of the Widow Winning and her two daughters. 

 They bought it at a bargain, and must have foreseen its 

 capabilities. 



What that house and place is now, it would do your 

 heart good to see. A porch of rustic trellis-work was built 

 over the front doorway, simple and pretty hoods upon 

 brackets over the windows, the dooryard was all laid out 

 afresh, the wornout apple trees were dug up, a nice bit of 

 lawn made around the house, and pleasant groups of shrub- 

 bery (mixed with two or three graceful elms) planted about 

 it. But, most of all, what fixes the attention, is the lovely 

 profusion of flowering vines that enrich the old house, and 

 transform what was a soulless habitation, into a home that 

 captivates all eyes. Even the old and almost leafless ash 

 tree is almost overrun with a creeper, which is stuck full 

 of gay trumpets all summer, that seem to blow many a 

 strain of gladness to the passers by. How many sorts of 

 honeysuckle, clematises, roses, etc., there are on wall or 

 trellis about that cottage, is more than we can tell. Cer- 

 tain it is, however, that half the village walks past that 

 house of a summer night, and inwardly thanks the fair 

 inmates for the fragrance that steals through the air in its 

 neighborhood: and no less certain is it that this house is 

 now the "admired of all admirers," and that the Widow 

 Winning has twice refused double the sum it went begging 

 at when it was only the plain and meagre home of Tim 

 Steady. 



Many of you in the country, as we well know, are com- 

 pelled by circumstances to live in houses which some one 

 else built, or which have, by ill-luck, an ugly expression in 

 every board or block of stone, from the sill of the door to 

 the peak of the roof. Paint won't hide it, nor cleanliness 

 disguise it, however goodly and agreeable things they are. 

 But vines will do both; or, what is better, they will, with 



