[interior fireplace of May house]

And now a glance at the old square barn east of the house and more
pretentious in size than the dwelling, with wide doors opening at both
ends, and lofts stacked with fragrant hay. This is the comfortable home
of faithful horses and gentle kine, who looked from their stalls and
stanchions on the youths and maidens who often made the walls resound
with their merriment and they were borne quickly past in the old swing
hanging from the creaking rafters.

The well-curb, with its long sweep and old oaken bucket, brings memories,
to some of us, of refreshing droughts of pure water, and of delicious
cream and butter rolls, which the moss-covered stone shelves far down the
well held securely from possible taint. Back of the house ran the
babbling brook and emptied into "the ditch," which was often broad and
deep enough to merit a more comely name, and was the favorite resort of
the young in winter for skating and sledding. But this ancestral home,
with all its charms, had passed from view, like man others, leaving but
cherished memories.

Captain Charles Brewer, whose fine estate on Pond Street was originally a
part of the May form, was a lineal descendant of Captain John May, on his
mother's side. He was born in Boston in 1804, and received his education
there, but early developed baa fondness for the sea, and for several
years was a successful ship-master in the Pacific and East India trade.
In 1836 he established a shipping business in Honolulu, and in 1846
returned with his family to this country, and became a resident of
Jamaica Plain. Soon after he erected the commodious mansion in the midst
of highly cultivated grounds, which was his home during the remainder of