HARVEST AND GLEANING TIME 175 



nished and furbished-up old farm-houses leave 

 them in charge of some one for the winter, 

 and go back to town, to come again when the 

 birds are singing. 



Some moneyed folks carry their aesthetic 

 fads with them out into the wilderness ; but 

 only a few, fortunately, as yet. On one corner 

 of a wild heath, sheltered by a belt of high 

 firs, I lately passed by a large house of many 

 gables, the roofs being covered by tiles of a 

 ferocious red. The gables, quarterings, and 

 window- frames were painted peacock- green, 

 the sashes pure white. All the outside doors 

 were a faint rose-colour. About fifty yards 

 away from it, on the other side of the newly 

 made road, in its own garden patch, sheltered by 

 birch-trees and sallows, stood one of the large 

 old rambling cottages, grey and yellow tinted, 

 covered with moss and lichens. This was in 

 perfect keeping with all that surrounded it ; 

 the other was simply incongruous and out of 

 place. One fine house stands in the centre 

 of what only a few years ago was one of 

 the most treacherous snipe-bogs in the whole 

 district. It is very secluded now, for wet 

 ground and alder thickets surround it ; on one 

 side only is it comparatively open, and that 



