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out forty or fifty feet into the water, far enough 

 to allow sail-boats to be drawn up to it. In 

 outside appearance the house has something 

 of the English farmhouse. The roof slopes 

 east and west from a central ridge-pole, with 

 no break of any kind except at the west end, 

 where a big and square chimney-stack rises to 

 a few feet above the level of the ridge-pole. 

 On the east end of the house the roof slants 

 down over a piazza, which is always shady in 

 the afternoons. Part of the piazza at the 

 northeast corner is taken up with a small re- 

 ception-room, opening upon the piazza, and 

 through which people must pass in order to 

 get into the house itself. From this reception- 

 room portieres open to the main room of the 

 house, which is living-room, library, music- 

 room, and everything but dining - room and 

 kitchen, in one ; when we have a crowd, it is a 

 dining-room too. It is thirty feet wide, the 

 whole width of the house, and thirty-five feet 

 long. At the end opposite the entrance is a 

 monumental fireplace, built of brick rather than 

 rough stone, because stone is scarce in this part 

 of the world. The opening is large enough to 



