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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.
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