zness and go through them Thousand Islands, and said he felt like
jumpin' off the boat, swimmin' ashore and buyin' the hull on 'em, they
wuz so entrancin'ly lovely. But by holdin' onto his principles and
patience (of course he'd got quite a lot of patience, he'd been
married a number of years) he managed to git through without jumpin'
off the boat and tacklin' the job of buyin' 'em, but said to himself,
"If my life is spared to finish up that bizness I'll come back and buy
ten or a dozen."

So sure enough on his way back he stopped off at Alexandria Bay and
tackled a real estate agent to see what he would ask for a few islands
close to the beautiful Bay. He had a idee, I spoze, of locatin' the
relation on his side and hern round on the different Islands, mebby
an island apiece. But to his surprise and horrow he found that the
price for the smallest one wuz appallin'. But he vowed that if it took
every cent of money he had (and he's quite well off) he would own a
piece of one big enough for a house.

So, after searchin' both by water and by land, he found a buildin'
spot he felt able to buy. It wuz on one end of an island that wuz
called Shadow Island, mebby because the shadder of the tall trees upon
it wuz mirrored so plain in the water, makin' it look as if there wuz
another and fairer isle below.

There wuz a big empty house standin' on one end of the Island, the
owner bein' in Europe and not wantin' to rent it. There wuz a portion
of it smooth and grassy, though the grass wuz kinder thin in places,
the rocks come up so clost to the surface. But as I told Whitfield,
stun is cleaner than dirt, and more healthy, unless you have 'em both
throwed at you, in that case dirt is more healthy. He said the spot
wuz dry and there wuz some hemlock and pine trees standin' on one end
on't, and under 'em wuz a carpet of the rich brown leaves and pine
needles that Whitfield thought would be beautiful for little Delight
to play in.

And on the spot he'd picked out for a house the soil wuz deep enough
for a good suller. Tirzah Ann always did love sullers; she kinder took
to 'em. She has to go down suller most the first thing when she comes
home visitin'. She never seems to want anything, only to sort o' look
round. Some say her ma wuz so; but there is worse things to take to
than sullers, and I wuz glad enough there wuz a place there where
Tirzah Ann could have one.

Well, I declare I fell in love with the place myself. And he be