HAPPY HOLLOW FARM 69 



fore their eyes. Happy Hollow is a rank vio- 

 lation of all native traditions. 



As we worked with the clearing through the 

 spring and early summer, we were thinking of 

 the big house. I had made up my mind that it 

 would be built, somehow, before winter. One 

 fact disturbed me a little: We knew we had 

 stone enough at hand for every use in our build- 

 ing, and we had expected to find that our forty- 

 acre woodlot carried timber enough for logs 

 for the house walls. We were disappointed 

 there. The lumbermen had raked these woods 

 clean of sound timber before our day, and the 

 new growth wasn't yet far enough along for 

 use. We had to give that plan up. 



As things turned out, we were better off for 

 that seeming disappointment. Our standing 

 luck had brought us a builder a man who 

 sensed exactly what we were after. Shivers 

 run through me sometimes when I think of 

 what might have happened if we hadn't stum- 

 bled upon that chap but, then, we did I He 

 not only understood; he sympathized, which 

 was worlds better. We had long sessions with 

 him, sitting in the shade of our big wild-cherry 

 tree, working out bills of material, discussing 

 details. Our man was engaged for the job be- 



