At the end of the garden, which is bright with old-fashioned flowers, stands the counting-house. This is a small building found on the estate in use as a wood-shed. Its age and previous history are not known, but as it is of the same size and shape as the old counting-house mentioned in the inventories of the Turner family, it has been furnished to represent it. There is the master's desk, a wonderful affair with many secret drawers, the clerk's desk, and armchairs, models of ships, a barometer, a telescope, etc. Adjoining the counting-house is a grape arbor, where the visitor can refresh himself with a cup of tea, and while he sits there enjoy a view of the harbor across the garden. On his left is the House of the Seven Gables, and on his right is another old house used for the settlement clubs and classes. It is the Hathaway house, dating from 1683, but that is another story. CHAPTER III THE PICKERING HOUSE It is doubtful if any other historic home in New England can boast, as does the Pickering house situated in Salem, Massachusetts, of being in the direct line of a family for nine generations. This family originated in Yorkshire, England. John Pickering, the founder of the Salem branch, was born in old England in 1614; he came to the colonies and lived in Ipswich from 1634 to 1636. In the early part of 1636 he came to Salem, and on December 7, 1636, John Pickering, carpenter, was granted to be an inhabitant of that city. [Illustration: PLATE IX.--The Pickering House, Salem, Mass.] Long years ago, when this city was in its youth and sparsely settled, large estates, many of them original grants, were founded. It was then that this now famous house was erected. It was commenced in 1650 and finished in 1651 by one John Pickering, the emigrant ancestor of the present owner of the old mansion, who became a considerable landowner, purchasing his estate in different lots until his property extended from Chestnut Street to the Mill Pond, then known as South River. [Illustration: PLATE X.--Pickering House, Side View.] The twenty-acre lot known as the home lot, on which he built the historic mansion, was originally a part of the governor's field, once owned by Governor John Endicott. It was conveyed by him to Emmanuel Downing, who sold it, so tradition tells, to one John Pickering to pay for the commencement dinner of Sir George Downing, who was graduated in the first class at Harvard. The original deed is still in the possession of the family. [Illustration: PLATE XI.--Entrance Door, Pickering House; Entrance Door in the Pickering House.]