Old and New Homes. 259 



section has long been famous, built with a rounded surface which turned 

 the rain as it fell, and so level as to be a great novelty to all who had been 

 accustomed to the rough, undulating roads of New England. No snow 

 was to be seen ; but, though only the 25th of March, we saw the ploughs 

 running in a dozen fields. Many had already been planted with early 

 pease. The grass in the headlands along the fences was fresh and green ; 

 and cows, turned out by shiftless owners to graze upon the highways, were 

 enjoying this first taste of the new pasture, and able to find substantial 

 pickings. 



Every thing was so new and strange to our New-England eyes, that we 

 took no note of distance, and were therefore quite surprised when told that 

 we had reached our future home. How eagerly we looked out through 

 the carriage-window to obtain a view of its condition and surroundings ! 

 We had left a trim and snug New-England house ; and though warned by 

 my father that we must not expect so neat an establishment here, yet we 

 were wholly unprepared for the sight which now opened upon us. There 

 stood a whity-brown house, with rough clapboards, without blinds or porch, 

 or veranda of any kind, set down within a few feet of the road, and pre- 

 senting altogether so comfortless an appearance as to strike dismay into 

 the hearts of both my mother and myself. It certainly was not the ideal 

 home I had so often pictured ; but we said nothing. One or two decrepit 

 shade-trees threw up their leafless branches near the front-door; and a few 

 stray lilacs and altheas, standing without regularity around, completed the 

 squalid picture. As to landscape, it was everywhere an almost perfect 

 level. No mountains, no hills, so familiar to New-Englanders, but only roll- 

 ing swells, just enough to carry off the rains. Yonder was an orchard of 

 old apple-trees ; and, beyond that, the horizon closed up with clumps of dark 

 evergreens, the remnants, as I supposed, of the vast pine-forests which once 

 covered all this portion of New Jersey. 



"There are no mountains here, father," I could not help exclaiming. 

 " Mountains never yet afforded us a living," he replied ; adding, " It is 

 time to be trying something better." 



The defects of our new location were apparent to us at a glance : its 

 beauties must be sought after, whether any were discovered or not. I well 

 knew what passed in my mother's mind as she took her first survey of the 



