Country life -- Fiction; Farm life -- Fiction; Outdoor life -- Fiction; Rural conditions -- Fiction
As master of this little rural domain, you behold Matthew Fabens, now
grown to ample manhood; and he would make a fine bust for Powers to cut
in marble. He stands six feet one without his shoes; he is straight as
the white-ash shade tree that honors the north meadow; and his body,
and arms, and legs, are round, and hard, and clean. He has a fine
turned head, deficient most in caution; high in benevolence,
veneration, and conscientiousness; and full in the regions that show he
can construct his own implements and comforts; arrange his farm with
order and taste; estimate values at a glance, and cast up accounts
without a slate and pencil. He has a fine turned Roman nose of the
cleanest and fairest skin; he has a well-shaped ear, rounded, and
separate at the bottom from the head; he has brown hair, and dark gray
eyes; he has a noble face and brilliant countenance; he has teeth
standing straight, and square and separate, and though they never were
brushed, they glisten with the cleanest and smoothest ivory polish; he
has a good-sized mouth, not too compressed, like a skin-flint's, nor
too open or lax like a fool's. He has a chin, throat, and chest,
showing energy of soul and body combined; and if twenty years older, he
would do fine honors to a president's chair.
Yonder, in the garden, arranging beds for winter vegetables, and
tending a few simple flowers, you behold Julia Fabens, and she has
quite outgrown the bend in her good form, which hard work brought on at
Mason's, and looks more mature, and hardy; and she is diligent as a
parent robin, and rosy and glad as the sweet summer morn.
Wiping the sweat from their frank foreheads and faces, there in the
cool, fresh current of air, sit Major Fabens and his venerable wife,
come on to this new country to draw freer breath, taste fairer fruit,
see greener thrift, and make a good son happy; and they are just
returned from a ramble by the lake.
Out near the well curb, toward the green maple on the right, plays our
loved little Clinton, the plump and laughing idol of the place; tossing
his ball out of sight into that cluster of golden mullens, and then
scampering full tilt after the broods of young chickens and turkeys
that peep about the door. Clinton is a promising boy, and the worst of
it is, he begins to find it out. But everybody likes him. He has most
of his father's look, with his mother's force and caution added, he
laughs all over his cunning little face; his yellow locks crinkle all
over his head; and his hands are so soft, and his neck so fat and
clean, you love to catch him to your heart, and hug him, and chuckle
beneath his chin, and carry away his sweetest strawberry kisses.
And stretched on the grass-plat before the door, sleeps the good dog
Jowler; shaggy and rough as a wolf; yet faithful and kind; resting from
a range in the woods, and dreaming of squirrels and coons.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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