16 MY FARM. 



pose of a " situation in the country " which fully 

 corresponded to my wishes (as advertised.) 



"Were the people mad, that they showed such 

 eagerness to divest themselves of charming places? 

 Or were my fine pictures possibly overdrawn ? And 

 yet, who could gainsay them ; are not trees, trees 

 and brooks, brooks and the sea, always itself? 



I think my New York friend, to whom I had or- 

 dered all replies to be addressed, may have handed 

 me a peck of letters ; blue letters, square letters, 

 triangular letters, pink letters (in female hand), and 

 soberly brown letters. 



It was a mortification to me to reflect that so 

 many fine places should be thrown upon the market 

 at the first hint of a purchaser ; " places most con- 

 venient ; " places on a " lovely shore ; " places by 

 rivers ; places with commanding views ; places on 

 prospective railways ; places innumerable. 



Not a few of the propositions contained in these 

 letters were, at first sight, plainly inadmissible ; as 

 where a sanguine gentleman suggested that I should 

 make a slight change of programme, so far as to plant 

 myself on the shores of the Great Lakes, or in a 

 pretty retiracy, among the fine forests along the Erie 

 railroad. 



Another, "in case I found nothing to suit else- 

 where," could recommend " a small place of ten 



