he garret, or rather loft--for it was lighted only
by a single window to the north, and seemed to have been intended as a
store-room.

The piazzas of the main building and western wing had no floors, as is
usual; but at the doors and at each window, large, flat irregular slabs
of granite lay imbedded in the delicious turf, affording comfortable
footing in all weather. Excellent paths of the same material--not nicely
adapted, but with the velvety sod filling frequent intervals between the
stones, led hither and thither from the house, to a crystal spring about
five paces off, to the road, or to one or two out--houses that lay to
the north, beyond the brook, and were thoroughly concealed by a few
locusts and catalpas.

Not more than six steps from the main door of the cottage stood the
dead trunk of a fantastic pear-tree, so clothed from head to foot in
the gorgeous bignonia blossoms that one required no little scrutiny to
determine what manner of sweet thing it could be. From various arms of
this tree hung cages of different kinds. In one, a large wicker cylinder
with a ring at top, revelled a mocking bird; in another an oriole; in a
third the impudent bobolink--while three or four more delicate prisons
were loudly vocal with canaries.

The pillars of the piazza were enwreathed in jasmine and sweet
honeysuckle; while from the angle formed by the main structure and
its west wing, in front, sprang a grape-vine of unexampled luxuriance.
Scorning all restraint, it had clambered first to the lower roof--then
to the higher; and along the ridge of this latter it continued to writhe
on, throwing out tendrils to the right and left, until at length it
fairly attained the east gable, and fell trailing over the stairs.

The whole house, with its wings, was constructed of the old-fashioned
Dutch shingles--broad, and with unrounded corners. It is a peculiarity
of this material to give houses built of it the appearance of being
wider at bottom than at top--after the manner of Egyptian architecture;
and in the present instance, this exceedingly picturesque effect was
aided by numerous pots of gorgeous flowers that almost encompassed the
base of the buildings.

The shingles were painted a dull gray; and the happiness with which this
neutral tint melted into the vivid green of the tulip tree leaves that
partially overshadowed the cottage, can readily be conceived by an
artist.

From the position near the stone wall, as described, t