like having your house in the middle of a road to take away the fence which slight as it may be is a round your home more things than one may come in without being asked we americans had better build more fences than take any away from our lives there should be gates for charity to go out and n and kindness and sympathy too but his life and his house are together each man s and castle to be kept and defended i was much amused once at thinking that the fine old solid doors were being faster than ever nowadays since so many front gates have disappeared and the click of the latch can no longer give notice of the approach of a now the sounds or the bell without note o country by ways warning and the village housekeeper cannot see who is coming in until they have already reached the door once the guests could be seen on their way up the walk it must be a satisfaction to look through the clear spots of the figured ground glass in the new doors and i believe if there is a covering inside few doors will be found with a peep hole it was better to hear the gate open and shut and if it caught and dragged as front gates are very apt to do you could have time always for a good look out of the window at the approaching friend there are few of us who cannot remember a garden which seemed to us a very paradise in childhood it was like a miracle when the yellow and white came into bloom in the spring and there was a time when tiger lilies and the taller rose bushes were taller than we were and we could not look over their heads as we do now there were always a good many lady s delights that grew under the bushes and came up anywhere in the of the walk or the door step and there was a little green called that was a famous stray away outside the fence one was not unlikely to see a company oi french which were forbidden standing room inside as if they were tiresome poor relations of th� flowers i always felt a sympathy for french from a mournful � they have a fresh sweet look as if they resigned themselves to their lot in life and made the best of it and remembered that they had the sunshine and rain and could see what was going on in the world if they were i like to remember being sent on errands and being asked to wait while the mistress of the house picked some flowers to send back to my mother they were almost always flat in those days the larger flowers were picked first and stood at the back and looked over the heads of those that were shorter of stem and stature and the always sent a message that they had not stopped to arrange them i remember that i had even then a great dislike to and that i would have waited patiently outside a gate all the afternoon if i knew that some one would kindly give me a of in the evening and lilies did not seem to me but it was easy for me to believe that solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like a great yellow or even the dear little single ones that were yellow and brown and until the snow came i wish that i had lived for a little while in those days when were a new fashion and it was a great distinction to have some growing in a front country by ways yard it always seems as if and belonged to the same generation with a certain kind oi new english gentlemen and ladies who were and severe in some of their fashions while in others they were more given to and mild than either their ancestors or the people who have lived in their houses since fifty years ago there seems to have been a last wave of which swept over the country and drowned for a time the sober and dancing which before had been considered no in the larger villages playing was clung to only by the most worldly citizens and as for dancing it was made a sin in it self and a reproach as if every step was taken in seven boots toward a place which is to be the final destination of all the wicked a single may have a severe and look but a row of them suggests the antique and pleasing pomp and ceremony of their early days before the were only used to keep the boxes of strings and nails aud the the best were put on a high shelf while ones were used for in the kitchen c there is far less social visiting from house to than there used to be people in the s have more acquaintances who live at a distance from a mournful was the case before the days of and there are more guests who come a distance which has something to do with making tea parties and the entertainment of one s neighbors less frequent than in former times but most of the new england towns have changed their characters in the last twenty years since the have come in and brought together large numbers either of foreigners or of a different class of people from those who used to make the most of the population a certain class of families is rapidly becoming extinct there will be found in the older villages very few persons left who belong to this class which was once far more important and powerful the oldest churches are apt to be most attended simply because a different sort of ideas even of heavenly things attract the i suppose that elderly people 