A few yards from the end of the bridge, and to the right hand of the highway, a disused, grass-grown road led through a close thicket of evergreens, some quarter of a mile on to an open level area, of about a hundred acres of exhausted land, grown up in broom sedge and completely surrounded by the pine forest. In the midst of this area stood a red stone cottage, consisting of a central building of two stories, flanked each side by wings of one story in height. The central building was finished by a gable roof front, with a large single fan-shaped window just above the front portico. The cottage stood in the midst of a garden of about one acre, shaded with many trees and surrounded by a substantial stone wall, parallel to which, on the inside, was a hedge of evergreens, and on the outside another hedge of climbing and intertwining wild rose, eglantine and blackberry vines. An iron gate, very rusty and dilapidated, admitted us to the grass-grown walk that led between two rows of black-oak trees to the front portico of the central building. We entered a small front hall, behind which was a large, square parlor, in the rear of which was a long dining-room. The wings on the right and left consisted each of a bedchamber, entered from the front hall. There was but one room above stairs, a large chamber immediately over the parlor in the central building, and lighted by the fan-light in the front gable. The kitchen, laundry and servants' rooms were in another building in the rear of the cottage; they were not joined together, but stood, as it were, back to back, presenting to each other a dead wall without door or window, and about two feet apart, thus forming a blind alley. I have been thus particular in describing the house, that you may better understand the story that follows. "The builder who designed this was certainly demented," said one of the party, pointing to the blind alley, with its waste of wall. Will laughed. "I have noticed, Madeleine, that quite as much of character is shown in the construction of houses as in the cut of physiognomies." "But, upon the whole, I like it," said the other. And so said every one. There was a stable, a coachhouse, a henhouse, a smokehouse, and, in fact, every possible accommodation for the household. The fruit trees and vines were teeming with fruit, which also lay ripening or decaying in great quantities upon the ground. The rose bushes had spread the grass with a warmer hue and sweeter covering. We filled our old carryall with fruit and our hands with flowers and prepared to return home. Ally was in ecstacies. So was Cousin Will. So was our grandmother, as much as a self-possessed and dignified matron of the old school could be said to be. As for myself, I could not sleep that night for thinking of our removal to the fine old place. We had unanimously resolved to take it.