166 IN BERKSHIRE FIELDS 



chimney. The front door and windows were boarded 

 up, but the rear door was entirely gone, and we 

 entered the kitchen, where we had evidently been 

 preceded in past years by wandering cattle. Here 

 was a great fireplace, with paneling over it, and large 

 panels on either side. The two front rooms boasted 

 hand-worked window-trim, and each had its excel- 

 lent mantel, with considerable cabinet-work upon 

 it, and a curiously flat-molded chair-rail all around, 

 in excellent preservation. Endeavoring to pry a 

 piece of this rail loose, we discovered that it was not 

 applied over the lathing, but was molded on the 

 face of studding which was built into the frame and 

 went clean through to the outer sheathing, which in 

 turn was nailed to it. There is construction for 

 you! It must have added many days or even 

 weeks of labor. The floors of this house were com- 

 posed of maple planks from twelve to twenty-four 

 inches wide. And everywhere was the scum and 

 litter left behind by a gang of lumberjacks who had 

 occupied it a few years before while the near-by pine 

 woods were being slaughtered. 



We left it presently, and followed the old road 

 down a slope into a swampy reach where huge alders 

 met over our heads and the road-bed had long ago 

 been absorbed by the muck. Emerging on the 

 farther side and climbing a hill where the chestnut 

 burs littered the grassy way, we once more came 

 upon the roadside maples in golden procession, with 

 the remnants of a clearing over the tumbled-down 

 stone wall, and knew that another house was once, 

 at least, near by. In a moment we reached what 

 was left of it — the great foundation and first-story 



