Old and New Homes. 69 



invested every year, we should certainly be contented. But " many men 

 have many minds : " and, if our friend who preceded us here had thought 

 as we do, of course we should not have come into possession of our pres(^nt 

 location; in which case, I should not have been able to tell the same sto.y. 



AVhen the season of fruit-gathering had fairly closed, and my father came 

 to settle his accounts, his receipts were ascertained to be very respectable, 

 considering our general inexperience : so, remembering his promise to 

 expend a little in improving the old house, he sent for the carpenter, and 

 we stated our plans. A pretty piazza on the front side, with green blinds 

 to the windows, would not cost much; but how greatly it would beautify 

 our home ! Then there were a few repairs indoors, but nothing extrava- 

 gant; the estimate of all being about two hundred dollars, including a good 

 coat of paint on all the new wood-work. The order was given, therefore ; and 

 in a few weeks we had the satisfaction of seeing our house transformed into 

 a pretty-looking cottage, far more to our taste than was the rough-looking 

 domicile which had first met our expectant gaze. 



" In the spring," said my father, " we will have a new fence and gate 

 before the entrance, and a trellis for the grapes." In fact, he was so well 

 pleased with the looks of things, that he was quite in the spirit of home 

 improvement, which we were not backward in encouraging. 



Perhaps some of our neighbors would have advised our waiting for these 

 things a little longer, or even doing without them altogether, preferring to 

 add a little more to the heap of savings. Their own shabby-looking houses, 

 brown and weather-beaten, with neither shade-trees nor shutters, had 

 remained in all their pristine ugliness for many years. They were con- 

 tented to live thus, and would have counted it lost time and money to 

 expend even a coat of whitewash upon any of their buildings merely to im- 

 prove their looks. Different education and associations had caused us to 

 decide otherwise ; and entire contentment in a shabby, unpainted dwelling, 

 without shade or flowers to comfort or adorn, would have been quite im- 

 possible in our case. 



To step within doors afforded a continued comparison. In our neigh- 

 bor's house, the front sitting-room was a stiff, bare-looking apartment, with 

 coarse, gaudy paper on the walls ; the table set back against the side of the 

 room, with painted wooden chairs to keep it company. One or two books 



