Norwich bulletin., 1922-06-30
cwrttten Specially For The Bulletin,


 The plain old farmhouse in which I live was built 125 years ago. this sum mer. It was supposed to be about the latest thing in farm-houses, at that time.
 That is to say, it was built wholly of hardwood lumber so far as the frame was concerned; had a cellar under heath the whole of it. had two chim- neys mot over four feet by six instead of Just one eight feet by ten; was clap boarded instead of up-and-down sided i; had a sort of hood projecting over it's front door and the broad landing-step, said hood being called in those days "stoop," a name retained even till my own boyhood days; and had its chief rooms not only lathed and plaster ed, but the walls painted a brownish- red and "sdorned" with a diagonal criss-cross design of conventional vine sprays. roughly outlined in black and white on the warm background.
 Externally and internally, however 1t was just a box with a roof on it. An exact rectangle without, except for the inevitable ell at the back for kitchen and wood-house. it was equally square cornered and uncompromising within. When it was roofed, the windows sash ed and glazed, the few partitions fin- lollCug anu LA6 llOOiS lolQf dL was 0tlAS and turned over to it's owner for imme- die occupancy.
 That owner and his wife with their growing brood of children had hither- to been living in a log cabin "chinked' with mud and covered with thatch of warping bark which leaked about as much rain as 1t shed. They moved in before the carpenters last shavings were swept out and started prompt fires with them in the wide fireplaces which in those stove1ess days served for both heating and cooking, While those old ire-places have all been closed up, now, there still remain in one of them the "crane" which swung over the open fire, and the ''pothooks" by which the house. wife's pots and kettles were ung from It.
 Their new home seemed to it's occu- pants almost a wonderland of comfort and convenience. in comparison with the primitive log hut which had shelt- | cred them, after fashion, during their first attack on a little clearing. Later on. they began to discover lacks lacks in point of convenience, in point ot comfort, in point of protection from the weather. Some of these lacks have beer remedied from time to time, and some ] have not been.
 | The huge old fire-places which tool half a cord of wood to make real win l ter fire in Cand which scorched people on one side while the drafts engender ed chilled them on the other), the fire ] places have been closed and stoves sub | stituted. A sink in the kitchen with { pump at it's end has taken the plac of the old maple "dug-out' in whicl I dishes used to be washed with wate brought in buckets from the pole-and sweep outdoor well. Most of the paint 1 ed walls have been covered with pape to hide the scratches and stains whic 8 century's rough occupancy has pro duced But, besides the crane and pot hooks in one fireplace there still re main the old brick smoke-house bull against one chimney in the attic tn attic itself, bare-raftered as when built and the original heavy panelled iron door with it's brass "knocker" just a it was bolted on 125 years ago.
 used to be pestered almost beyon
 endurance by bargain-hunting specula tors who wanted to buy that 'Txnocker
 for about one-tenth of what they e1
 pected to sell it for. I got tired (
 explaining, over and over again, tha
 didn't want to sell 1t, that I was fon
 of it myself and had associations wit
 it which money wouldn't pay for. Nov
 adays I use a shorter formula. Whe
 Mir. or Mrs. Antique-hunter sees it an
 cries, "Oh, will you sell your 'knocker'
 respond nonchalantly, 'rWhy, yes,
 can get my price" And how muc
 do you ask?" There's where I c-r-u-s-
 'em. About s5,5o0 with a discount
 ten per cent. for cash" is my answe
 While they stare at me- goggl a-eyed.
 add ''The knocker goes with the doc
 you know, and the door goes with Il
 house. and the house goes with u
 farm" After which they manage
 see the point more or less clearly ar
 depart. leaving me to go back Into Il
 garden and weed onions in peace.
 To come back to our old farm-hous