IN THE CATSKILLS 



through the woods and brought all their worldly 

 gear on a sled drawn by a yoke of oxen. Their 

 neighbors helped them build a house of logs, with 

 a roof of black-ash bark and a floor of hewn white- 

 ash plank. A great stone chimney and fireplace 

 the mortar of red clay gave light and warmth, 

 and cooked the meat and baked the bread, when 

 there was any to cook or to bake. Here they lived 

 and reared their family, and found life sweet. 

 Their unworthy descendant, yielding to the inher- 

 ited love of the soil, flees the city and its artificial 

 ways, and gets a few acres in the country, where 

 he proposes to engage in the pursuit supposed to 

 be free to every American citizen, the pursuit of 

 happiness. The humble old farmhouse is discarded, 

 and a smart, modern country-house put up. Walks 

 and roads are made and graveled ; trees and hedges 

 are planted; the rustic old barn is rehabilitated; 

 and, after it is all fixed, the uneasy proprietor 

 stands off and looks, and calculates by how much 

 he has missed the picturesque, at which he aimed. 

 Our new houses undoubtedly have greater com- 

 forts and conveniences than the old ; and, if we 

 could keep our pride and vanity in abeyance and 

 forget that all the world is looking on, they might 

 have beauty also. 



The man that forgets himself, he is the man we 

 like; and the dwelling that forgets itself, in its pur- 

 pose to shelter and protect its inmates and make 

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