96 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1891. 



ancient worthies quaffed their flip and merry country dancers 

 heeded not the fleeting hours, and suggested in lieu thereof a 

 hot-air furnace, and, I added, an illuminated motto, God bless 

 our register. 



I wanted a rural home, and so I set about making one. A 

 carpenter put a rustic porch, over three doors, a simple little 

 structure, at a cost of less than fourteen dollars for all. The old 

 sash had to come out, for they and the frames were as far apart as 

 the representatives and senators of the Connecticut legislature, 

 and the wavy old glass gave such distorted views of outer life 

 as would transform a philosopher into a cynic, and as I was not 

 much of the former, I feared that I should be very much of the 

 latter if I allowed them to remain. A lower sash with large 

 lights and an upper sash with small lights have taken their place. 

 By letting my man and team, they earned the paint that trans- 

 formed the glittering white monstrosity into an unobtrusive 

 brown house, and my friend Mr. Hadwen — of whom some of 

 you may have heard — sent me climbing plants that have now 

 covered it all and made it a leafy bower in summer. Whether 

 it was friendship for me that prompted the deed, or a sympa- 

 thetic tendency to keep green the memories of the hot toddy of 

 the days of yore, I will leave it for those who know him best 

 to say. So my old home has been transformed, not modern- 

 ized ; when we attempt to modernize an old structure we find 

 our work a failure, and that we have destroyed the charm that 

 always clings to an ancient abode ; we should strive to still 

 further develop those charms, by simply intensifying the l)est 

 features of the age to which it belonged. 



The interior of a house should receive more attention than the 

 exterior, for in this climate we are obliged to pass more time in 

 doors than out, and here is the true home. And this is my idea 

 of the general feature ; large rooms, well lighted with broad 

 windows, studding eight or nine feet which admit of uniform 

 warmth and good air, and arranged to connect by wide sliding 

 or folding doors, so that in summer they can be all thrown 

 open, and have almost the appearance of one. " Le grande 

 salon," as a Frenchman would term it. A broad hall running 

 somewhere through the house, not necessarily plumb in the 



