TAKING REINS IN HAND. 45 



monies. Upon the peak was a lively weather-cock 

 of shingle, most preposterously active in its motions, 

 and trimming to every flaw of wind with a nervous 

 rapidity, that reminded me of nothing so much as of 

 the alacrity of a small newspaper editor. There was 

 the attendant company of farm sheds, low sheds, 

 high sheds, tumble-down sheds, one with a motley 

 array of seasoned lumber, well dappled over with 

 such domestic coloring as barn-yard fowls are in the 

 habit of administering ; another, with sleds and 

 sleighs, looking out of place in June and sub- 

 mitted to the same domestic garniture. There was 

 the cider mill with its old casks, and press, seamy and 

 mildewed, both having musty taint. A convenient 

 mossy cherry tree was hung over with last year's 

 scythes and bush-hooks, while two or three broken 

 ox chains trailed from the stump of a limb, which 

 had suffered amputation. Nor must I forget the 

 shop, half home-made, half remnant of something 

 better, with an old hat or two thrust into the broken 

 sashes with its unhelved, gone-by axes, its hoes 

 with half their blade gone, its dozen of infirm rakes, 

 its hospital shelf for broken swivels, heel-wedges 

 and dried balls of putty. 



I remember passing a discriminating eye over the 

 tools, bethinking me how I would swing the broad 

 axe, or put the saws to sharp service ; for in bargain 



