and equal simplicity in your furniture and appointments. Now
just turn all this nonsense in furniture and room dressing out of doors,
and let some of your town friends have it. Get some simple, comfortable,
cottage furniture, much better for all purposes, than this, and you will
settle down into quiet, natural country life before you are aware of it,
and all will go 'merry as a marriage bell' with you, in a little
time"--for they both loved the country, and were truly excellent people.
We continued, "I came to spend the day and the night, and I will stay;
and this evening we'll go down to your neighbor Jocelyn's; and you, Mrs.
N----, shall go with us; and we will see how quietly and comfortably he
and his family take the world in a farmer's way."

We did go; not in carriage and livery, but walked the pleasant half mile
that lay between them; the exercise of which gave us all activity and
good spirits. Jocelyn was right glad to see us, and Patty, his staid and
sober wife, with whom we had romped many an innocent hour in our
childhood days, was quite as glad as he. But they _looked_ a little
surprised that such "great folks" as their new neighbors, should drop in
so unceremoniously, and into their common "keeping room," too, to chat
away an evening. However, the embarrassment soon wore off. We talked of
farming; we talked of the late elections; we talked of the fruit trees
and the strawberry beds; and Mrs. Jocelyn, who was a pattern of good
housekeeping, told Mrs. N---- how _she_ made her apple jellies, and her
currant tarts, and cream cheeses; and before we left they had exchanged
ever so many engagements,--Mrs. Patty to learn her new friend to do half
a dozen nice little matters of household pickling and preserving; while
she, in turn, was to teach Nancy and Fanny, Patty's two rosy-cheeked
daughters, almost as pretty as their mother was at their own age, to
knit a bead bag and work a fancy chair seat! And then we had apples and
nuts, all of the very best--for Jocelyn was a rare hand at grafting and
managing his fruit trees, and knew the best apples all over the country.
We had, indeed, a capital time! To cut the story short, the next spring
our friend sent his _fancy_ furniture to auction, and provided his house
with simple cottage furnishings, at less than half the cost of the
other; which both he and his wife afterward declared was infinitely
better, for all house-keeping purposes. He also threw a neat wing on to
the