eway at one side that
winds to an entrance porch. All around the house are carefully trimmed
lawns and gardens gay with flowers, while the soft expanse of green
sward extends to the shadowing trees and the background of forest and
rock. The house was built two hundred and fifteen years ago. At that
time it stood on the road and was overshadowed by the very oldest house
there was in the town, which stood on the crest of an adjoining hill. It
then contained four rooms only, each one of which was thirteen and a
half feet square. Surrounding the old farmhouse was an orchard of
apple-trees that even in the early days gave to it its present name of
Little Orchard.

[Illustration: The Angle of the Ell]

The possibilities of the little cottage, as it stood forlorn by the side
of the road, attracted the attention of the present owner, who purchased
it, moved it back from the road to its present location, and remodeled
it, adding a wing at the left. The old front door was improved by the
addition of a semicircular porch which is an exact reproduction of the
porch on the White house at Salem, Massachusetts. The side porch was
unique and most picturesque in its design. Ivy has been trained to cover
the veranda and outline many of the windows.

At the rear, facing the garden with its frontage of gnarled apple-trees,
we find the veranda or out-of-doors living-room. This is used during the
summer months and commands one of the most picturesque views on the
estate, overlooking lawns and forest.

[Illustration: The Entrance Porch]

[Illustration: The Stairway]

Entrance to the old house is through the porch, and one finds himself in
a most charming hallway, at one side of which is an alcoved recess. This
is hung in blue and white Morris paper. Near the front door at the right
is the staircase which leads with low treads and broad landing to the
second-story floor; it has a hand-carved balustrade with a mahogany
rail, while its newel post shows fine carving. Half way up between two
huge beams have been placed some wonderful old pieces of china of the
Colonial period, and under them is the quaint inscription, a welcome to
the home, "In God's hands stands this house, may good luck come to it
and bad luck go out of it." The staircase is reproduced from a
particularly fine model found in a house in Boston that was originally
the home of one of America's greatest statesmen, Edward Everett. It fits
into its new surroundings as if it had