The Rescue of an Old Place 



tion of two hundred years, that the part of 

 the place around the house lay in a hollow, 

 and, there being no one to complain, the 

 town dug water-ways and coolly drained 

 the road over the surface of the ground, 

 so that, after a spring freshet, piles of 

 sand were to be found all over the grass, 

 giving the farm a water-logged aspect that 

 added to its disrepute. 

 We tmy the From this, and from the fact that, situ- 

 atec j as - t was b etween the two villages, 

 it formed absolutely a part of neither of 

 them to us an advantage rather than a 

 drawback, but to the town's-people an ob- 

 jection it resulted that when the farm 

 was put up at auction, some ten years ago, 

 no purchaser could be found at any price. 

 Finally, convinced that the land was worth 

 more without the house than with it, the 

 owner took it down, and, to the great 

 amusement and consternation of the old 

 farmers, who despised the spot, we bought 

 the place for a moderate sum, having con- 

 vinced ourselves by careful examination 

 that it would at least give us an occupa- 

 tion for the rest of our natural lives to get 

 it into condition ; and as that was what 

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