Laicus The experiences of a Layman in a Country Parish

Diplo

le in Wheathedge. Though I never liked the country, she did. And I now think that summer

te good-bye. My clients had to conform to the new office hours, 10 to 3, with Saturdays struck off the office calendar, and, in the dog days, Mondays too. Yet I was within call, and business ran smoothly. The country looked brighter than it used to do. I learned to enjoy the glorious sunrise that New Yorkers never see. I discovered that there were other indications of a moonlight night than the fact that the street lamps were not lighted. Harry grew fat and rosy, and his little chuckle developed into a lusty laugh. Jennie's headaches were blown away by the fresh air that came down f

ve by Mr. Sinclair's

pretty

allows who had made their nests in little chambers curiously constructed under the eaves and hidden among the sheltering leaves; a green sward sweeping down to the road, with a few grand old forest trees scattered carelessly about as though nature had been the landscape gardner; and prettiest of all, a little boy and girl playi

all events the beauty so struck me, like a landscape fresh from the hand of some great artist-as it was indeed, fresh from the hand o

Bluebeard very well. But if Mrs. Bluebeard had been a strong minded woman, and had killed her seven husbands, I wonder if the eighth would not have taken a peep. He would

retty little cottage on the hill just opposite the church. I see th

"But you can easily

he lives there a

see the inside of that pretty house. "Jennie," said I, "let's go in and look at the inside of tha

e thing for me to call

r has never c

ew Yorker. I am looking about Wheathedge for a place. I see this place is for

"that's another matter. I have

hould like to know the price o

od," sai

for a sitting-room-which I instantly converted in my imagination into a library-which looked with one window on the river and with another on the mountains. There was a very convenient kitchen built out in a wing from one end of the dining-room, and three chambers over the three downstairs rooms, from the larger one of which, over the sitting-room, we could take in at a gla

lace for $10,000 or rent it for $800. For the summer? No! for the year. He did not care to rent it for the summer, nor to give possession before fall. Would he rent the furniture? Yes, if one wanted it. But tha

t till the next February. The dip

irst day of February. I had been in to pay my rent. "J

g to do?" said she

It's high at $2,000.-

o?" said

oulders. I had n

ing to do next s

" said I int

eave her nest to find a home among strangers when God sends her a little bird to be watched an

said I. "I will tell the landlord to-morrow t

thedge," said she. "We did enjoy ourselves s

helped, Jen

king to herself; "no-unless we took

hought of t

sked the diplomate. Sh

d dollars a y

aving of $1,700 a

a fact,"

get a house here; if we did we could stay later and come in to board

built house half freezing you, and when you try to keep warm your air-tight stove half suffocating you; with the road

the snow comes we can easily move back again, as easily as find a new h

nd if his house is in the market, Jennie, we we w

y. I did not pay him any rent. I did not move into the city when the snow came. The diplomate had her own way as she always does. We live in the country; and I-I am very glad of it. I can harness Katie on a pinch

he other day, "don't you want t

the utmost expression

not,

mells