CHAPTER VI 
THE MATING OF BROWNIE 
T wasn’t far from the home where Brownie 
was born that land is sometimes worth $5,000 
an acre, and men and women of the world of 
“fashion ” build Italian villas and French Re- 
naissance chateaux amid the Yankee maples and 
pines and chestnuts of the Berkshire Hills. Yet 
Brownie’s home was quite as comfortable as any 
of these, though architecturally it might be de- 
scribed, perhaps, as pre-neolithic, with pro- 
nounced aquatic influences. It was designed and 
built by Brownie’s father and mother. The 
front door was under water, which effectively 
discouraged tramps, beggars, soap and sewing- 
machine peddlers, book agents and even loan 
drive canvassers and strange dogs. The front 
hall, as a consequence, was a trifle damp, but once 
up-stairs into the parlor, sleeping-room, dining- 
173 
