The Rescue of an Old Place 



old tree was an entering wedge of im- 

 provements that found no end. 



The clearing up revealed unsuspected 

 beauties and possibilities in the old place, 

 and at the end of it we had taken an ac- 

 count of stock, and were aware that we 

 had become owners of a treasure-house of 

 enjoyments. But the charms and wealth 

 of that old garden are " another story," 

 which remains to be told later. 

 Grading the While all this spring and fall cleaning 

 was going on, the heavy labor of grading 

 was in progress. Teams and men were 

 coming and going, heavy scrapers were 

 plowing part of the little knoll down into 

 the valley, and loads of gravel were being 

 dumped to bring the slopes into proper 

 form, the surface soil having been first 

 removed to cover the future lawn. Week 

 by week the work went on, till the very 

 landscape changed its contours, as the re- 

 moval of the crown of the knoll threw 

 open to view, from the sidewalk, the fine 

 stretch of green meadow and blue stream, 

 once hidden from view by its cone. 



When our much interested critics found 

 that we had chosen the site for our dwell- 

 40 



