CHAPTER IV. 

 THE TERRACES. 



IX most country houses the porches are where the people really 

 live, and ours was to be no exception to the rule but we had 

 a passion for sunlight. How were we to have plenty of covered 

 porches and yet uncovered windows .' Finally we arrived at a 

 satisfactory solution of the problem. On the cast we made a covered 

 porch fourteen feet wide and thirty-four feet long, from which de- 

 scended the long broken flight of shallow steps to the carriage road. 

 Through the house in true Southern fashion, separating the 

 living-room from the dining-room, ran the "dog-trot," twenty-four 

 by twenty feet, which in summer was to be screened 'in, and in 

 winter protected by glass. On the table in one corner we keep a 

 Floral Calendar with the choicest blossoms of the day. The 

 season begins with the hepaticas in April; followed by anemones 

 and violets, jonquils and forsythia, in May. June brings great 

 branches of shad-bush and bridal wreath, lilacs and syringas, and 

 roses galore. With July the columbines appear on the table, the 

 lady's slipper, the cardinal-flower, and tall blue lettuce. August 



otters her yellow helenium and lobelia. To most minds September 



47 



