he principal building and one from the kitchen. A wide hall in
the centre, swept through the whole length without interference from
the rear building, which might be considered as a continuation of
somewhat less than one-half of the part in front. The wood-house stood
on the same side as the kitchen, some twenty feet distant; and still
further back, a large barn, also of wood, and painted a light lead
color, with the exception of the cornice and trimmings about the doors
and windows, which were white. The house itself stood some fifty feet
back from the high road, and was surrounded by enormous elms, those
glories of the cultivated American landscape, some measuring four and
five feet in diameter, and throwing their gracefully drooping branches
far and high over the roof, to which, in the heat of summer, they
furnished an acceptable shade. The prospect in front, and looking
between two rows of maples that lined the road, comprehended the
Yaupaae, expanded into a lake, green fields and apple orchards running
down to the water's edge, and hills, clothed to the top with verdure,
rolling away like gigantic waves into the distance. Behind the house
was a garden and orchard of, perhaps, two acres, terminating in a
small evergreen wood of hemlocks and savins, interspersed with a few
noble oaks. Mr. Armstrong had laid out several winding paths through
this little wood, and placed here and there a rustic seat; and the
taste of his daughter had embellished it with a few flowers. Here
Faith had taught the moss pink to throw its millions of starry
blossoms in early spring over the moist ground, after the modest
trailing arbutus, from its retreat beneath the hemlocks, had exhausted
its sweet breath; here, later in the season, the wild columbine
wondered at the neighborhood of the damask rose; here, in the warm
days of summer, or in the delicious moonlight evenings, she loved to
wander, either alone or with her father, in its cool paths.

Still more beautiful than the prospect from the front door, were the
views from this charming spot. Rising to a considerable elevation
above the river to which it descended with a rapid slope, it commanded
not only the former view to the south, though more extended, but also
one to the northwest. Beneath, at a depression of eighty feet, lay the
lake-like river with its green islets dotting the surface, while, at
a short distance, the Fall of the Yaupaae precipitated itself over a
rocky declivity, mi