~ 86 THE COUSINS.

wheat. Lucy would have liked another journcy
to Saratoga better than the quict farm which her
father had chosen for the summer retreat of his
family. This farm was three or four miles distant
from the country town of N , Which is situated

 

about thirty miles up the Hudson, or, as the New
Yorkers call it, the North River. The farm house
was of stone, built roughly, and looking weather-
stained and smoked without, but withinit wasclean,
neat, and comfortable. he rooms were large, the
walls very white, the floors covered with bright
home-made carpeting, and the white pine tables,
and even the rush-bottomed chairs, were spotless.
The house was built nearly at the foot of a hill,
up the side of which extended the apple orchard.
On one side of the house ran a clear brook, which,
a little lower down, was made to turn a saw-mill
belonging to the same farmer; and on the other
side, separated by a narrow road, was a clover-
field. Beyond this might be seen waving the just
ripening wheat and rye. All looked new to Mary;
and full of curiosity, she asked a thousand ques-
tions of her uncle. After dinner he walked out,

and she turned to her aunt for information. Mrs,