A grass-plot, ornamented with a circular flower-bed, extended a
short distance on either side of the house. But not too much land
was put to such unproductive use; and the small lawn was closely
bordered by a corn-field on the one side and on the other by an
apple orchard. Beyond stretched the tobacco--and wheat-fields, and
behind the house were the vegetable garden and the barn-yard.

Arrived at home by half-past three, Tillie hid her "Ivanhoe" under
the pillow of her bed when she went up-stairs to change her faded
calico school dress for the yet older garment she wore at her
work.

If she had not been obliged to change her dress, she would have
been puzzled to know how to hide her book, for she could not,
without creating suspicion, have gone up-stairs in the daytime. In
New Canaan one never went up-stairs during the day, except at the
rare times when obliged to change one's clothes. Every one washed
at the pump and used the one family roller-towel hanging on the
porch. Miss Margaret, ever since her arrival in the neighborhood,
had been the subject of wide-spread remark and even suspicion,
because she "washed up-stairs" and even sat up-stairs!--in her
bedroom! It was an unheard-of proceeding in New Canaan.

Tillie helped her father in the celery-beds until dark; then,
weary, but excited at the prospect of her book, she went in from
the fields and up-stairs to the little low-roofed bed-chamber
which she shared with her two half-sisters. They were already in
bed and asleep, as was their mother in the room across the hall,
for every one went to bed at sundown in Canaan Township, and got
up at sunrise.