he roadside, the afternoon was drawing to a close when the little party
reached the McDonald farmhouse.

The hardy pioneer who had first settled on the land that was owned and
tilled by his descendants, must have selected the site on which he built
his first log-house with an eye to the picturesque and beautiful, for no
other spot for miles around had such a far reaching and delightful
prospect. As time went by, and the land gave forth its increase, the
log-house was supplemented by a more pretentious structure, that was "built
on," the original apartments serving for kitchens, outhouses and other
necessary buildings; and as this process of erection went on at later
periods, the farmhouse was large and many sided, and possessed many
conveniences that farmers are apt to consider unnecessary. But the honest
pride that the present owner had in the well-tilled acres extended to the
buildings upon it, and neatness and thrift were everywhere present. No
hingeless gates propped with sticks met the eye; no broken-down doors were
to be seen on his barns; a master hand ruled the land, and his rule brought
prosperity and happiness.

The inmates of the farmhouse were such as you would expect to find amidst
such surroundings--active and intelligent, and not wholly given up to the
pursuit of the things which perish with the using, for the young people, at
least, found time for intellectual pleasures that would have been
considered in some farmhouses a wilful waste of time and means.

The family consisted of two young girls well up in their teens; Tom, a
lively boy of twelve, and Dora, a plump little miss of six; and coming
after these, in her own estimation, was the mother, a model of neatness and
good-nature, a fine dairy woman, whose interests were, of course, centred
in her cows and poultry yard, and she was generally found somewhere near
the vicinity of her particular treasures.

Then there was Phebe, the strong-armed. A very important member of the
family was she, as you would soon learn if you made any stay in the
farmhouse. She it was who solved problems by the aid of washboard and
scrubbing-brush, and the tempting meals she sent out of the kitchen would
have delighted the heart of an epicure. But to see Phebe at her best, one
should be at the farm during the busy haying season. It was her pride and
delight to be considered "as good as any man," and she could "pitch a load"
with a dexterity that even the two farm hands could