94 FROM A NEW ENGL.l N D HILLSIDE. 



XVIII. 



I said that it was a great bore, 

 Phollis remarked in that exasperating way 

 that some young women have of dulling 

 the fine points made by their elders, fur 

 whose gray beards and bald pates they 

 should have more respect, that I &quot;must 

 have got that off before, it came so easy.&quot; 

 I was speaking of the big hole which I 

 own upon the hillside. I never owned so 

 long a hole before in all my life, and now I 

 cannot take it away with me and make it 

 of any service. 



The fact is that workmen have set up a 

 steam engine with other appropriate para 

 phernalia upon my building site, and for a 

 week past they have been drilling away 

 with a very blunt chisel in search for water. 

 They tell me they have already gone down 

 about seventy-two feet, and have as yet 

 secured a very inadequate supply of that 

 useful commodity. They tell me also that 

 they are on hard pan, and this makes me 

 feel at home, so many of us have been situ- 



