THE SEARCH AND FINDING. 23 



" It is a farm he has to sell ? " 



" Yah yah, farm." 



I ask if the view is good. 



" Yah view yah." 



I venture a question in regard to the mill. 



" Yah mill yah." 



" Grist mill ? " I ask. 



" Yah miU." 



" For sawing ? " I add, thinking possibly he might 

 misunderstand me. 



" Yah sawing." 



I venture to ask after his crops. 



" Crops yah." 



The conversation was not satisfactory : we were 

 driving along a dusty highway, and had entered upon 

 a sombre valley, where there was no sign of cultiva- 

 tion, and where the only dwelling to be seen, was 

 one of those excessively new houses of matched 

 boards, perched immediately upon the side of the 

 high-road, and with its pert and rectangular "join- 

 ery " offending every rural sentiment that might have 

 grown out of the blithe atmosphere and the morning 

 drive. 



" Dish is de place," said my friend of the red 

 beard and porcelain pipe ; and I could not doubt it ; 

 there was a poetic agreement between man aud 

 house ; but the mill remained where was the mill ? 



