TAKING REINS IN HAND 



and its pleasant juxtaposition of tints was so 

 suggestive of the particolored devices that I 

 had seen on the country houses of Lombardy, 

 that the chimneys have become cheap little 

 monuments of loiterings in Italy. 



The plank of the gables, wholly unplaned, 

 has been painted a neutral tint to harmonize 

 with the stone, and the battens are white, to 

 accord with the lines of mortar in the wall 

 below ; the commingled brick and stone of the 

 house, are repeated in the chimneys above ; the 

 roof has now taken on a gray tint ; the lichens 

 are fast forming on the lower stones; a few 

 vines, — the Virginia creeper chiefest (Ampel- 

 opsis Hederacea), — are fastening into the 

 crevices, making wreaths about the windows 

 all the summer through, and in autumn hang 

 flaming on the wall. There is a May crim- 

 son, too, from the rose-bushes that are trailed 

 upon the porch. It is all heavily shaded; a 

 long, low wall of gray, lighted with red-bor- 

 dered embrasures, taking mellowness from 

 every added year; there are no blinds to re- 

 pair ; there is but little paint to renew ; it is 

 warm in winter; it is cool in summer; vines 

 cling to it kindly ; the lichens love it ; I would 

 not replace its homeliness with the jauntiest 

 green-blinded house in the country. 



97 



