156 
RURAL HOURS 
their ingenuity, but it seems natural to like a farm or a garden 
beyond most workshops. It needs not to be a great agricultural 
establishment with scientific sheds and show dairies — for knowl- 
edge and experience are necessary to appreciate the merits of such 
a place; — a simple body, who goes to enjoy and not to criticise, 
will find enough to please him about any common farm, provided 
the goodman be sober and industrious, the housewife be neat and 
thrifty. 
From the window of the room in which we were sitting, we 
looked over the whole of Mr, B 's farm ; the wheat-field, corn- 
field, orchard, potato-patch, and buckwheat-field. The farmer 
himself, with his wagon and horses, a boy and a man, were busy 
in a hay-field, just below the house ; several cows were feeding 
in the meadoAv, and about fifty sheep were nibbling on the hill- 
side. A piece of woodland was pointed out on the height above, 
which supplied the house with fuel. We saw no evergreens there ; 
the trees Avere chiefly maple, birch, oak, and chestnut ; with us, 
about the lake, every wood contains hemlock and pine. 
Finding we were interested in rural matters, our good friend 
offered to show us whatever we wished to see, ansAvering all our 
many questions with the SAveet, old smile peculiar to herself. 
She took us to the little garden ; it contained potatoes, cabbages, 
onions, cucumbers, and beans ; a roAV of currant-bushes AA^as the 
only fruit ; a patch of catnep, and another of mint, grcAv in one 
corner. Our farmers, as a general rule, are proverbially indiffer- 
ent about their gardens. There was no fruit on the place besides 
the apple-trees of the orchard ; one is surprised that cherries, 
and pears, and plums, all suited to our hilly climate in this coun- 
ty, should not receive more attention; they yield a desirable 
