The Romance and Tragedy

efore we were quite in accord with the sentiment

rmhouse, improved by a piazza; but the interior, under the deft hands and good tas

t high; but this did not distress us, though in our parlor,

of a house set on a little elevation, in the center of a rather rough

th from the piazza to the road, set out an arbor-vitae hedge, made

n, but the kitchen garden was my hobby, and with all the enthus

ones, the soil was rich and productive. I met with wonderful success, and t

rked for two or three hours. Then a bath, followed by breakfast, and after a day in town,

enjoy th

for digging up the seed to see if it had sproute

out charge, and in melon season I picked the melons

the thought of thos

lf, practically by my own labor, added

most of the distance through a private la

s interesting; but not so the people, at least to us. It w

what we sought-a pleasant, comfortable home,

ntire expenditure was but thirteen hundred dollars, which w

ys, and these little visits we always enjoyed; but to each other my wife and I were

y "love in

way, and with wife and babies take a drive, our favorite ride having as an objecti

tural beauty with Morris County, New Jersey, and we commanded the best of this, in rather antiqu

o mind an incident of later years which

nt Comfort, and while we were there John Jacob As

few old negroes with disreputable "foh de wah" vehicles and horses that could only get over the poor

o of these hacks standing in front of

ne I selected had been washed probably at least once that season, w

d on our return met the o

g positively the worst-looking turnout I ever saw, wa

der such conditions, struck me first as ludicrous and then as a living example of the g

the day. With only one maid, my wife had no difficulty in keeping bu