New Oregon plaindealer. (New Oregon, Iowa) 1859-1866, 1859-08-20


kept tavern in Greenfield, a town Of
Western Massachusetts,, and, like his
father and grandfather before him, had
only one SON. Tn the mean time, the old.
house in Haddam township had fallen
into asruinous condition, and, as the farm
was very small, and Improbable chest
nut-woodland at that, the whole. was
leased to an old negro and his. wife, who
lived there in the most utter solitude,
scratching the soil for few beans and
potatoes, and in the autumn gathering
nuts, or.in the spring roots for beer, with
which OldtJake padded up to Middle
Town, to bring home a return freight Of
salt pork and rum. Es S .% /
The town Of Greenfield, small though
At was, and at the very top Of a high hill,
was yet the countystown, subject tosal.
nual incnrsions of lawyers, and ouch
'thlAmg incidents" as arise from tie Is!
|cation Of a jail and. q cotrt-room within
the limits Of any village. The scenery
had certain summer charm Of utter qil
let that did it good service with some.
healthy. people of well-regulateds and IN.
sensitive tastes From Greenfield HUI.
one looked away over wide stretch -
rolling country; low hills, in long, desc
late waves Of pasturage and grai1 reliey-.
ed here and there by mas Of black
woodland, or red farm-housg and barns
clustered against a hillside, just over
wooden spire IN the shallow valley, about
which We're gathered few white hous-
les, giving signs Of life thrice a dry in
tiny threads of smoke rising from their
prim chilnneys; and over all, the spallied
skies Of New England, Where the sun
|Wheeled his shofn beams from east to
west IS coldly as if no tropic seas mir
rored his more fervid glow thousands of
miles away, and the chilly moon beamed
with irrerroacha WhiteneSs acress the
round gray hills and the straggli1Yg pond,
beloved Of frogs, and mud-turtles, that
FGreenfeld held in honor under the name
of Squam Lakes a.a.. - 1
Perhaps it was the scenery, pesh4ps
the air, possibly the cheapness of tie
place as far as all the necessaries of life
went, that tempted Judge Hyde to pitch
his tent there, in the house his fathers
had built long ago, instead Of wearing
his judicial honors publicly, in the city
where he attained them; but, whatever
the motive might be, certain it is that at
the age ofsforty. he married delicate
beauty from Baltimore, and came to live
on Greenfield Hill, in the great white
house with = gambrel roof and dormer
windows, standing behind certain huge
naples, where's Major Hyde and Parson
Hyde and Deacon Hyde had all lived be-
fore him. y 1865 aeaa2 @.u e,.4
A brief Northern summer bloomed
gayfy enough for Adelaide Howard Hyde
when she made her bridal tour to her
new home; and cold as she found the as
pect Of that house, with it's formal ma
hogany chairs, ehigh-backed, and carved
in grim festoons and ovals of incessant
repetition, Its penitential couch of So
ia, where only the iron spine Of a Revo-
|lutionary heroine could have found rest,
Its pinched, starved, and double starch
ed portraits of defunct Hydes, Puritanic
to the very ends Of toupet and perriiwig,
Little Mrs. Hyde was deep enough in
love with her tall and handsome hus-
band to overlook the upholstery Of a
home he glorifed, and to care little for
comfort elsewhere, so long as she could
nestle on his knee and rest her curly
head against his shoulder. Besides, flow
ers grew, even in Greenfeldy there were
damask roses and old-fashioned lilies en-
ongh in the square garden to have fur
nished whole century of poets with sim
iles;l and in the posy-bed under. the front
windows were tulips of Chinese awkward
ness and splendor, beds Of pinks spicy as
all Arabia, blue hyacinths heavy with
sweetness as well as bells, 5sspi'nies'' ru-
bicund and rank. rheart,ease clustered