36 FARM ECHOES. 



CHAPTER V. 

 EARLY EXPERIENCES. 



I left Philadelphia early in the spring of 1870 for Litch- 

 field, Conn., to put my summer residence in order for 

 my family. From East Litchfield Station, on the Nau- 

 gatuck Railroad, I came by stage three miles, over roads 

 up hill nearly all the way, and very heavy from the frost 

 coming out of the ground. 



At the summit of the hill, having reached an altitude 

 of nearly twelve hundred feet above the sea quite high 

 enough for any stars belonging to this planet, I alighted 

 at my new home, and, as I wrote my family, "went two 

 feet into the mud." My letter created no little surprise, 

 as all who read it, or heard of it, supposed that I had 

 been mired up to my knees, but such was not the case. 

 The mud was quite harmless, and though I went into it 

 " two feet " that is, both feet the depth was not more 

 than an inch or so. 



I had often seen much worse roads, though none half 

 as bad as some I have heard of, where, for instance, a 

 man was working his way along as best he could, and 

 came to a hat which he picked up in the middle of the 

 road. To his surprise he found he had lifted it from the 

 head of a man enveloped in the mud, who smilingly looked 

 up and asked for an explanation. The hat was at once 

 replaced upon the head of its owner, with an apology, and 



