aches the old
brick house through a long avenue of trees. The house faces on a green
lawn which slopes to the waters of a broad stream, with glimpses in the
distances of a wide bay. About the house there are broad fields with
rich, fertile soil capable of high cultivation. Fine roads run all
through the countryside and there are charming places on the creeks and
inlets, each commanding a beautiful water view. You may take your launch
in the late afternoon if you are weary, and run about in sheltered water
ways commanding fine views of pretty homes set in lovely lawns and
trees. Or you may take a sail, venturing out from a small inlet to a
wider bay, and so on into the great open water of the Chesapeake.

I know a green lawn on a certain inlet, shaded by luxuriant oak trees,
where the sound of bells comes across the water from the village spires
of an historic old village. The family boat is just behind the house,
rocking gently on the waters of a little stream, which runs up from the
larger stream into the mainland. The situation is ideal.

We drive about Talbot County and on into Princess Ann County. Everywhere
we find the same fertile, level fields, the same water ways with their
lovely glimpses of broader water beyond. Where could one wish for a
better luncheon than the one served us at an unpretentious little inn
called Queen Cottage, in the old village of Queenstown? Delicious oyster
soup, the oysters just out of the water, an omelet that would have done
justice to a French chef, candied sweet potatoes cooked as only a
Southern cook knows how, fresh peas, hot biscuits, excellent coffee, and
the pink heart of a cool, unwilted water-melon; and all for a most
reasonable sum. Queen Cottage would be a sweet spot in which to spend a
little time of retreat, bountifully fed and free to wander about quiet
streets and fertile open country.

We pass, in driving about, the largest oak tree in the county, standing
in the door yard of a country place, and carefully preserved and watched
over. Perhaps I should say watched under, as it is an immense green tent
of huge spreading branches, each one a tree in itself in its girth and
diameter.

From Easton we drive north and northwest to Wilmington over fine roads.
The State of Maryland is improving her roads and will in a few years
have highways that will be among the finest in the country, while her
scenery is that of a smiling country becoming more and more cultivated.
On from