OUR COUNTRY NEIGHBORS. 



\ ~\ 7E have just built our house in rather an out-of-the- 

 way place, on the bank of a river, and under the 

 shade of a patch of woods which is a veritable remain of 

 quite an ancient forest. The checkerberry and partridge- 

 plum, with their glossy green leaves and scarlet berries, 

 still carpet the ground under its deep shadows ; and prince's- 

 pine and other kindred evergreens declare its native wild- 

 ness, for these are children of the wild woods, that 

 never come after plough and harrow has once broken a 

 soil. 



When we tried to look out the spot for our house, we 

 had to get a surveyor to go before us and cut a path 

 through the dense underbrush that was laced together in a 

 general network of boughs and leaves, and grew so high 

 as to overtop our heads. Where the house stands, four or 

 five great old oaks and chestnuts had to be cut away to 

 let it in ; and now it stands on the bank of the river, the 

 edges of which are still overhung with old forest-trees, 

 chestnuts and oaks, which look at themselves in the glassy 

 stream. 



A little knoll near the house was chosen for a garden- 

 spot ; a dense, dark mass of trees above, of bushes in mid- 



