22 MY VINEYARD. 



OUR HOUSE. 



We liked the house even better than ^ve had anticipat- 

 ed. Its location was exactly suited to our minds. About 

 a third of the way from the road to the lake, the land 

 swelled into a gentle knoll. Scattered in nature's pictur- 

 esque way were some twenty native trees, so far apart as 

 not to cast too dense a shade ; and in the midst of them, 

 upon the crown of the swell, the house was situated. On 

 the first floor were two good-sized rooms, and an addition 

 in the rear furnished a buttery and a wood-house, the lat- 

 ter large enough for a stove in the summer. Above were 

 three comfortable sleeping-rooms. The house faced to- 

 wards the south, and the front door opened directly into 

 the west-room, which was by far the pleasanter of the 

 two. It contained three windows ; the front looking 

 across the meadow towards the road ; the westerly one 

 looked out upon the woods, but these were so broken on 

 the left as to reveal glimpses of the western horizon ; 

 while the remaining window afforded a fine view of the 

 lake towards the north. Not least among the attractions 

 of the room was a large, old-fashioned fire-place in the 

 division wall, which butted ujd against a corresponding 

 one in the adjacent room. I have always had a fancy for 

 an open fire. Nothing so cheerful as to sit beside the 

 glowing embers of a winter's evening, while the wild 

 winds are making merry with the fleecy snow, and call 



