Tenants. 67 



and finally the man was acquitted, though indicted by the 

 grand jury for assault with intent to kill." 



Thus would we sit under the trees and discourse on 

 the law, the speculators, the railroads and the bees, and the 

 old man would call me his " dear friend," would take me 

 by the sleeve, and put his hand on my shoulder and talk 

 most earnestly. He would walk away as if to depart, and 

 then return and sit by my side again. He had not lived 

 in vain, for he was content to die — had a philosophical 

 desperation; he saw that he must surrender to circum- 

 stances and to what he was. 



Sometimes when the rain fell we took shelter under 

 one of the piazzas, the roof of which was upheld by trimmed 

 cedars, the original supports having rotted away. There 

 were several poles stretched from post to post to keep the 

 cattle from invading the premises, and under its floor 

 dwelt a rabbit. Often I remained there for hours alone, 

 while the rain fell upon the roof, and looked out upon tbe 

 scene I knew in all of its moods. The cattle grazing on 

 the slope, the brook below in the meadow, and the hills 

 beyond clothed with trees. If rain were not so common 

 we would regard it with wonder — the blue sky of an hour 

 ago shedding tears. 



The wall of the house was built of stones gathered from 

 the neighboring hills, and they might have been labeled, 

 if the house had had a tenant, and served as his geological 

 museum of the drift boulders of the vicinity. There were 

 two or three granites, trap, several limestones and sand- 

 stones, including Jersey trias. Sometimes when the rain 

 fell in torrents and came gushing from the spout connected 



