The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1879-04-15
OUR NEW NEIGHBORS.

to be the tenants. The modest structure
was set well back from the road, among
the trees, as if the inmates were to care
nothing whatever for a view of the
stylish equipages which sweep by during
the summer season. For my part, | like
to see them passing, in town or country;
but each has his own taste. The propri-
etor, who seemed to be also the architect
of the new house, superintended the vari-
Gus details of the work with an assiduity
that gave me high opinion of his intel
ligence and executive ability, and l con-
graduated myself on the prospect of
having some very agreeable neighbors.
1t was quite early in the spring, if L
remember, when they moved into the
cottage-a newly-married couple, evident
ly; the wife very young, pretty and with
the air of a lady; the husband somewhat
older, but still in the flush of manhood.
1t was understood in the illage that they
came from Baltimore; but no one knew
them personally, and they brought no
letters of introduction. (For obvious
reasons | refrain from mentioning names
1t was clear that, for the present at least,
their own company was entirely suf-
ficient for them. They made no advance
toward the acquaintance Of any of the
families in the neighborhood, and conse-
quently were left to themselves. That,
| apparently, was what they desired, and
why they came to Ponkapog. For, after
its black bass and wild duck and teal, sol
itude is the chief staple of Ponkapog.
Perhaps its perfect rural loveliness should
be included. Lying high up under the
wing of the Blue hills, and in the odor-
Gus breath of pines and cedars, it chances
to be the most enchanting bit of genuine
country within fifty miles of Boston,
which, moreover can be reached in half
an hours ride by railway. But the near
est railway station Heaven be praised J
| is two miles distant, and the seclusion is
without a flaw. Ponkapog has one mail
day; two mails day would render the
place uninhabitable.
The village-it looks like compact
village at a distance, but unravels and
disappears the moment you drive into il
has quite a large floating population
l do not allude to the perch and pickerel
Along the Old Bay road, a highway ever
in the colonial days, there are number
of attractive cottages struggling off to
ward Milton, which were occupied fol
the summer by people from the city
These birds of passage are distinct elas'
from the permanent inhabitants, and the
two seldom assimilate unless there ha,
been some previous connection. II
l 4l,,t tNnr
were to come under the head of perma
nent inhabitants; they had built theil
own house, and had the air of intending
to live in it all the year round.
care You not going to call on themF
/ asked my wife one morning.
"When they call on US" she replied
lightly.
But it is our place to call first, they
being strangers
This was said as seriously as the cir
cumstances demanded; but my wife
turned it off with laugh, and said nC
more, always trusting to her munitions il
these matters. She was right. She
would not have been received, and /
cool "not at home" would have been {
bitter social p II to us f we had gone ou
of our way to be courteous.
/ saw great deal of our neighbors
nevertheless. Their cottage lay between
US and the Post-ofhce-where he wa
never to be met by any chance-and
caught frequent glimpses of the two
working in the garden. Horticulture die
not appear so much an object as exer
else. Possibly it was neither; Ilayb'
they were engaged in digging for speci
mems of those arrowheads and fin
hatchets which are continually COMING
a to the surface hereabouts. There
4 scarcely an acre in which the plowshar
: has not turned up some primitive ston
. weapon or domestic utensil, disdainfull
q left to us by the red men who once hel
J, the domain-an ancient tribe called th
e Punkypoags, forlorn descendant c
which, one Polly Crowd, figures in tn
annual Blue Book, down to the close {
i, the Southern war, as State pensione
|, | quote from the local histriographer.
n Whether they were developing
- kitchen garden, or emulating Professt
Schliemann at Mycen4, the new-come
n were evidently persons of refined music
q q taste. The lady had voice of remarl
, able sweetness, although of no gre;
y compass; and used often to linger of
morning by the gate and listen to ht
'e executing an operatic air, conjecturall
~ at some window up stairs, for the hou
II was not visible from the public roa
IS The husband, somewhere about ii
II grounds, would occasionally respond wit
IL two or three bars. 1t was all quite q
81 ideal, Arcadian business. They SCENE
s. very happy together, these two person
. who asked no odds whatever of the col
munity in which they had settled theI
tx selves.
+. There was queeTness, sort OF my
b. terry, about this couple, which | adm
I'd piqued my curiosity, though, as rule,
er have no morbid interest in the affairs
ID nv neighbors. They had behaved like
to pair OF lovers who had run off and G
}. married clandestinely. | willingly {
,p quilted them, the one and the other,
I'd T. wing no legal right to do SO; for,
tn change word in the lines of the poet:
er Itis Il Joy 10 think the best
We may of human kind.
of Admitting the hypothesis of elopemel
er there was no mystery in their Meth
4 sending nor receiving letters. But wht
in did they get their groceries? / do l
an mean the money to pay for them-th
ot OF is an enigma part-but the grocer
or themselves. No express wagon,
,s. butchers cart, no vehicle of any descr
n ton, was ever observed to stop at tn
he he domicile, Yet they did not order fam
If stores at the sole establishment in
Nv yilaee-an inexhaustible LITTLE bottle