circumstances would have made a tinsmith be- 

 come a gibbering maniac. Stoves were lifted 

 and pushed into place that would have made 

 Hercules' labors seem like basket-ball. 



By nine o'clock the beds were up, the carpets 

 in place, but not tacked, the range drawing like 

 a furnace, the yet unbroken crockery arranged 

 on the shelves, pictures hung, and, what was 

 best of all, we had become in those few short 

 hours better acquainted with each and every 

 member of the family than we would have been 

 had they lived there for years; and their opinion 

 of our town, which had been steadily going 

 down from the moment they left their old home, 

 had mounted to a really undeserved height. 



Indeed, when at a late hour we dragged our 

 tired legs upstairs to bed, we felt that we had 

 really done something worth while, and realized 

 how thoroughly we would have appreciated a 

 little attention of the sort when we entered an 

 alien neighborhood. 



The next morning the entire family of chil- 

 dren were over in time to see me milk the cow 

 and rub down the horses, and as they had never 

 seen anything of the kind before, I was com- 

 pelled to answer about a thousand questions 

 before they fully understood matters. 



Up to this time the neighborhood had been 

 emphatically not a neighborhood of children, 



