![]() Vulgar curiosity made me bold to inquire the names of a few imagine my astonishment when graciously told that the gay dandelion, the modest daisy, the blushing currant, had one and all contributed their nectar to the joy of the occasion. Here came in my first acquaintance with many varieties of home-made wines, over whose wealth of color and delicacy of flavor my eyes and palate longed to linger. Cake and wine were invariably served as a preliminary warning toward early departure. As with the dear ladies of Cranford, a call was a very serious affair, given and received with great gravity, and had its time limit set with strict punctuality. The social customs of this Adamless Eden were precise and formal. The ladies of the Great Houses, as the villagers called the few Colonial mansions, were invariably spinsters or widows of uncertain years, the last descendants of a long line of sea captains and prosperous mariners, to whom the heritage of these old homes, rich with their time-honored furnishings and curios, served to keep warm the cockles of kindly hearts, which extended to the stranger that traditional hospitality which makes the whole world kin. A few blind lanes led to less pretentious homes and still farther back farmhouses dotted the landscape and broke the dead line of the horizon.įor peace, contentment, and quiet serenity of life, this little village might have been Arcadia the surrounding country, the land of Beulah. ![]() ![]() Once been a thriving seaport, but now consisted of hardly more than a dozen old-fashioned Colonial houses facing each other along one broad, well-kept street. ![]() ![]() The idea of compiling this little volume occurred to me while on a visit to some friends at their summer home in a quaint New England village. ![]()
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