The hardy pioneer who had first settled on the land that was owned and
tilled by his descendants, must have selected the site on which he built
his first log-house with an eye to the picturesque and beautiful, for no
other spot for miles around had such a far reaching and delightful
prospect. As time went by, and the land gave forth its increase, the
log-house was supplemented by a more pretentious structure, that was "built
on," the original apartments serving for kitchens, outhouses and other
necessary buildings; and as this process of erection went on at later
periods, the farmhouse was large and many sided, and possessed many
conveniences that farmers are apt to consider unnecessary. But the honest
pride that the present owner had in the well-tilled acres extended to the
buildings upon it, and neatness and thrift were everywhere present. No
hingeless gates propped with sticks met the eye; no broken-down doors were
to be seen on his barns; a master hand ruled the land, and his rule brought
prosperity and happiness.
The inmates of the farmhouse were such as you would expect to find amidst
such surroundings--active and intelligent, and not wholly given up to the
pursuit of the things which perish with the using, for the young people, at
least, found time for intellectual pleasures that would have been
considered in some farmhouses a wilful waste of time and means.
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