ROOF-TREE. 281 



towers of strength ; the openings pierce the walls and 

 reveal their cohesion ; every stone is alive with pur- 

 pose, and the whole affects one as a real triumph over 

 Nature so much form and proportion wrested from 

 her grasp. There is power in stone, and in a less 

 measure in brick ; but wood must be boldly handled 

 not to look frail or flat. Then unhewn stone has the 

 negative beauty which is so desirable. 



I say, therefore, build of stone by all means, if you 

 have a natural taste to gratify, and the rockier your 

 structure looks, the better. All things make friends 

 with a stone house the mosses and lichens, and 

 vines and birds. It is kindred to the earth and the 

 elements, and makes itself at home in any situation. 



When I set out to look up a place in the country, 

 I was chiefly intent on finding a few acres of good 

 fruit land near a large stone-heap. While I was yet 

 undecided about the land, the discovery of the stone- 

 heap at a convenient distance, vast piles of square 

 blocks of all sizes, wedged off the upright strata by 

 the frost during uncounted ages, and all mottled and 

 colored by the weather, made me hasten to close the 

 bargain. The large country-seats in the neighbor- 

 hood were mainly of brick or pine ; only a few of the 

 early settlers had availed themselves of this beautiful 

 material that lay in such abundance handy to every 

 man's back-door, and in those cases the stones were 

 nearly buried in white mortar, as if they were some- 

 thing to be ashamed of. Truly, the besmeared, be- 

 plastered appearance of most stone houses is by no 



