TAKING REINS IN HAND. 61 



limits. A broad, free, gravelly yard, with occasional 

 obtrusive stones, now lay open, through which I 

 ordered a loaded team to be driven by the easiest 

 track from the highway to the door, and thence to 

 make an easy and natural turn, and pass on to the 

 stable-court. This line of transit marked out my 

 road : what was easiest for the cattle once, would be 

 easiest always. There is no better rule for laying 

 down an approach over rolling ground none so 

 simple ; none which, in one instance out of six, will 

 show more grace of outline. The obtrusive stones 

 were removed ; the elliptical spaces described by the 

 inner line of track, which were untouched, and which 

 would need never to be touched by any passage of 

 teams, were dug over and stocked with evergreens, 

 lilacs, and azalias. 



These are now well established clumps, in which 

 wild vines have intruded, and under which the brood 

 of summer chickens find shelter from the sun, and the 

 children a pretty cover for their hoydenish " hide and 

 go seek." 



Thus far I have anticipated those changes and 

 improvements which immediately concerned the com- 

 fort and the order of the home. "With these pro- 

 vided, and the paperers and painters all fairly turned 

 adrift, and the newly planted flowers abloom, the 

 question occurs what shall be done with the Farm ? 



