TAKING REINS IN HAND, 45 



monies. Upon the peak was a lively weather-cock 



of shingle, most preposterously active in its motions, 

 and trimming to every flaw of wind with a nervous 

 rapidity, that reminded me of nothing so much as of 

 the alacrity of a small newspaper editor. There was 

 the attendant company of farm sheds, low sheds, 

 high sheds, tumble-down sheds, one with a motley 

 array of seasoned lumber, well dappled over with 

 such domestic coloring as barn-yard fowls are in the 

 habit of administering ; another, with sleds and 

 sleighs, looking out of place in June and sub 

 mitted to the same domestic garniture. There was 

 the cider mill with its old casks, and press, seamy and 

 mildewed, both having musty taint. A convenient 

 mossy cherry tree was hung over with last year s 

 scythes and bush-hooks, while two or three broken 

 ox chains trailed from the stump of a limb, which 

 had suffered amputation. Xor must I forget the 

 shop, half home-made, half remnant of something 

 better, with an old hat or two thrust into the broken 

 sashes with its unhelved, gone-by axes, its hoes 

 with half their blade gone, its dozen of infirm rakes, 

 its hospital shelf for broken swivels, heel-wedges 

 and dried balls of putty. 



I remember passing a discriminating eye over the 

 tools, bethinking me how I would swing the broad 

 axe, or put the saws to sharp service ; for in bargain 



