TAKING REINS IN HAND. 93 



next is the rustic porch, and a door opening upon the 

 hall ; next, a broad living-room or kitchen, with its 

 generous chimney, and this flanked by a wash room, 

 or scullery, from which & second outer door opens 

 upon the southern front. To this latter door, which 

 may have its show of tubs, tins, and drying mops, a 

 screen of shrubbery gives all needed privacy from the 

 street, and separates by a wall of flowering things 

 from the modest pretensions of the entrance by the 

 porch. At least, such was an available part of the 

 design. If the good woman s poultry, loving so sunny 

 a spot, will worry away the rootlets of the lower 

 flowering shrubs, and leave only a tree or two for 

 screen, it is an arrangement of the leafy furniture, 

 over which the successive occupants have entire con 

 trol. The noticeable fact is, that the best face of the 

 cottage, and its most serviceable openings, whether 

 of window or door, are given to the full flow of the 

 sun, and not to the road side. What is the road 

 indeed, but a convenience ? Why build at it, or 

 toward it, as if it were sovereign, or as if we owed it 

 a duty or a reverence ? We owe it none ; indeed, 

 under the ordering of most highway surveyors, we 

 owe it only contempt. But the path of the sun, and 

 of the seasons, is of God s ordering ; and a south win 

 dow will print on every winter s morning a golden 

 prayer upon the floor ; and every summer s morning 



