Just below the brow of the hill one of the traces broke (it was in thehorse-and-wagon days of a dozen years or so ago), and, if our driver hadnot been a prompt man our adventure might have come to grief when it wasscarcely begun. As it was, we climbed on foot to the top, and waitedwhile he went into a poor old wreck of a house to borrow a string forrepairs.We wondered if the house we were going to see would be like this one. Itwas of no special design and it had never had a period. It was just ahouse, built out of some one's urgent need and a lean purse. In thefifty years or so of its existence it had warped and lurched and becomesway-backed and old--oh, so old and dilapidated--without becoming in theleast antique, but just dismal and disreputable--a veritable pariah ofarchitecture. We thought this too bad, for the situation, with its viewdown a little valley and in the distance the hazy hills, was the sort ofthing that, common as it is in Connecticut, never loses its charm. Nevermind, we said, perhaps "our house" would have a view, too.But then our trace was mended and we went along--happily, for it wassunny weather and summer-time, and, though parents of a family of three,we were still young enough to find pleasure in novelty and a surprise atevery turn. Our driver was not a communicative spirit, but we drew fromhim that a good many houses were empty in this part--"people dead orgone away, and city folks not begun to come yet"--he didn't know why,for it was handy enough to town--sixty miles by train--and anice-enough country, and healthy--just overlooked, he guessed.We agreed readily with this view; we were passing, just then, along adeep gorge that had a romantic, even dangerous, aspect; we descended toa pretty valley by a road so crooked that twice it nearly crosseditself; we followed up a clear, foaming little river to a place wherethere was a mill and a waterfall, also an old-fashioned white housesurrounded by trees. Just there we crossed a bridge and our driverpulled up."The man you came to see lives here," he said. "The house is ahead, upthe next hill." --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.