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 knoAvl- 
edge and experience are necessaiy to appreciate the merits of such 
a place ; — a simple body, who goes to enjoy and not to criticise, 
Avill 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, Avith his Avagon and horses, a boy and a man, were busy 
in a hay-field, just beloAV the house ; several coavs were feeding 
in the meadoAv, and about fifty sheep were nibbling on the hill- 
side. A piece of Avoodland was pointed out on the height above, 
which supplied the house Avith fuel. We saAV no evergreens there ; 
the trees Avere chiefly maple, birch, oak, and chestnut ; with us, 
about the lake, every wood contains hemlock and pine. 
Finding Ave were interested in rural matters, our good friend 
offered to shoAV us whatever Ave Avished to see, ansAvering all our 
many questions Avith the sweet, old smile peculiar to herself. 
She took us to the little garden ; it contained potatoes, cabbages, 
onions, cucumbers, and beans ; a row of currant-bushes was the 
only fruit ; a patch of catnep, and another of mint, grew in one 
corner. Our fanners, as a general rule, are proverbially indiffer- 
ent about their gardens. Tliere 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 covm- 
ty, should not receiA'e more attention; they yield a desirable 
