14 A Walk from 



mately imitate. In a word, I fancied his barns and 

 stables would even surpass in this respect the establish- 

 ments of some of those wealthy New York or Boston 

 merchants, who think they are stimulating country 

 farmers to healthy emulation by lavishing from thirty 

 to forty thousand dollars on a barn and its appurtenant 

 outhouses. With these preconceived ideas, it was an 

 unexpected satisfaction to see quite a simple-looking, 

 unassuming establishment, which any well-to-do farmer 

 might make and own. The house is rather a large and 

 solid-looking building, erected by Mr. Mechi himself, 

 but not at all ostentatious of wealth or architectural 

 taste. The barns and " steddings," or what we call 

 cow-houses in America, are of a very ordinary cast, or 

 such as any country-bred farmer would call economical 

 and simple. The homestead occupies no picturesque 

 site, and commands no interesting scenery. The farm 

 consists of about 170 acres, which, in England, is re- 

 garded as a rather small holding. The land is naturally 

 sterile and hard of cultivation, most of it apparently 

 being heavily mixed with ferruginous matter. When 

 plowed deeply, the clods turned up look frequently like 

 compact masses of iron ore. Every experienced farmer 

 knows the natural poverty of such a soil, and the hard 

 labor to man and beast it costs to till it. 



To my great regret, Mr. Mechi was not at home, 



