Judge Sharp's carriage stopped in front of a noble mansion near the
centre of the village. I think it must have been one of the oldest
houses in the place. But modern improvements had so transfigured and
beautified it, that it bore the aspect of a noble suburban villa,
rather than a mountain residence. The roof lifted in a pointed gable,
and supported by brackets, shot several feet over the front, resting
on a row of tall, slender columns which formed a noble portico along
the entire front.

In order to leave the first family homestead ever built in those
mountains entire in its simple architecture, this portico shaded the
double row of windows first introduced into the dwelling; and the main
building remained entire within and without, as it had been left years
before by its primitive architect. But modern wings had been united to
the old building on the left and in the rear pointed with gables, and
so interspersed with chimneys that the whole mass formed a gothic
exterior singular and beautiful as it was picturesque.

Noble old trees, maple, elm and ash, shaded the green lawn which fell
far back from the house, terminating on one side in a fine fruit
orchard bending with ripened peaches and purple plums, and broken up
on the south by a flower-garden gorgeous with late summer blossoms,
shaded with grape arbors and clumps of mountain ash, all flushed and
red with berries.

This noble garden lost itself in the deep green of an apple orchard
full of singing birds. The waters of a mountain brook came leaping
down from the broken hills beyond, and gleamed through the thick
foliage, mingling their sweet perpetual chime with the rising breath