CHAPTER XXIII 



LIFE IN THE HUT 



While my larger cottage was building I lived in tlie 

 tiny one just across the lawn that had been built a 

 couple of years before. And had I not been burdened 

 with the cumbersome accessories of many beloved 

 industries, and with the wish to house and enjoy my 

 books and pictures and my many " things," and to 

 be able to have the joy of receiving friends under 

 my own roof, I should scarcely have wished to live 

 elsewhere or in anything larger. 



The Hut is mostly ground-floor. There is one 

 rather large room with a big window to the east, a 

 room good to paint or work in, but for the time- 

 being more or less filled with stored furniture. It 

 has a handsome ingle-nook and the usual " down " 

 hearth. When on winter evenings there is a great 

 log-fire blazing, and hot elder-wine is ready for drink- 

 ing and nuts waiting to be cracked, and some good 

 comrades are sitting, some on its inner fixed benches 

 and some facing the fire's wide front, singing " Craiynez 

 de tomber " or " Let's have a peal," or other familiar 

 rounds and catches, it is a very cosy and cheerful 

 place. Great oak beams stretch overhead, tying the 



280 iji 



