MY FARM OF EDGEWOOD 



Another, "in case I found nothing to suit 

 elsewhere," could recommend "a small place 

 of ten acres, in a thriving country town, two 

 minutes' walk from the post-office, house forty 

 by thirty-five, and ten feet between joints, 

 stages passing the door three times a day, large 

 apple trees in the yard newly grafted, and the 

 good will of a small grocery, upon the corner, 

 to be sold, if desired, with the goods, and 

 healthy." 



Inadmissible, of course ; and the letter passed 

 over into the hat of my friend. Another let- 

 ter, from a widow lady, invited attention to 

 the admired place of her late husband : he had 

 "an unusual taste for country life, and had 

 expended large sums in beautifying the farm; 

 marble mantels throughout the house, Gothic 

 porticos, and some statuary about the grounds. 

 There was a gardener's cottage, and a farmer's 

 house, as well as another small tenement for 

 an under-gardener, and twenty acres of land 

 of which six in shrubbery and lawns." The 

 architecture seemed to me rather dispropor- 

 tionate to the land; inadmissible upon the 

 whole, as a desirable place on which to test 

 the economies of a quiet farm-life. 



I can conceive of nothing so shocking to a 

 hearty lover of the country, as to live in the 



20 



