The Lock-Men's Houses Were Particularly Well Placed,
Retired, And High, Always At Falls Or Rapids, And Commanding The
Pleasantest
Reaches of the river, - for it is generally wider and
more lake-like just above a fall, - and there they
Wait for boats.
These humble dwellings, homely and sincere, in which a hearth was
still the essential part, were more pleasing to our eyes than
palaces or castles would have been. In the noon of these days,
as we have said, we occasionally climbed the banks and approached
these houses, to get a glass of water and make acquaintance with
their inhabitants. High in the leafy bank, surrounded commonly
by a small patch of corn and beans, squashes and melons, with
sometimes a graceful hop-yard on one side, and some running vine
over the windows, they appeared like beehives set to gather honey
for a summer. I have not read of any Arcadian life which
surpasses the actual luxury and serenity of these New England
dwellings. For the outward gilding, at least, the age is golden
enough. As you approach the sunny doorway, awakening the echoes
by your steps, still no sound from these barracks of repose, and
you fear that the gentlest knock may seem rude to the Oriental
dreamers. The door is opened, perchance, by some Yankee-Hindoo
woman, whose small-voiced but sincere hospitality, out of the
bottomless depths of a quiet nature, has travelled quite round to
the opposite side, and fears only to obtrude its kindness. You
step over the white-scoured floor to the bright "dresser"
lightly, as if afraid to disturb the devotions of the
household, - for Oriental dynasties appear to have passed away
since the dinner-table was last spread here, - and thence to the
frequented curb, where you see your long-forgotten, unshaven face
at the bottom, in juxtaposition with new-made butter and the
trout in the well. "Perhaps you would like some molasses and
ginger," suggests the faint noon voice. Sometimes there sits the
brother who follows the sea, their representative man; who knows
only how far it is to the nearest port, no more distances, all
the rest is sea and distant capes, - patting the dog, or dandling
the kitten in arms that were stretched by the cable and the oar,
pulling against Boreas or the trade-winds. He looks up at the
stranger, half pleased, half astonished, with a mariner's eye, as
if he were a dolphin within cast. If men will believe it, _sua
si bona norint_, there are no more quiet Tempes, nor more poetic
and Arcadian lives, than may be lived in these New England
dwellings. We thought that the employment of their inhabitants
by day would be to tend the flowers and herds, and at night, like
the shepherds of old, to cluster and give names to the stars from
the river banks.
We passed a large and densely wooded island this forenoon,
between Short's and Griffith's Falls, the fairest which we had
met with, with a handsome grove of elms at its head.
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