.. why should I tell of these
things!"
Since the Autocrat has himself told the story of this episode so
beautifully, no one else need attempt it. He drank in the very wine of
life with the air of those summer mornings.
Returning to some of Dr. Holmes's early letters, written before he
moved to Charles Street, I find him addressing his correspondent from
Pittsfield, where for seven years he enjoyed a country house in
summer. "But," he said one day many years later, "a country house, you
will remember, has been justly styled by Balzac '_une plaie
ouverte_.' There is no end to the expenses it entails. I was very
anxious to have a country retreat, and when my wife had a small legacy
of about two thousand dollars a good many years ago, we thought we
would put up a perfectly plain shelter with that money on a beautiful
piece of ground we owned in Pittsfield. Well, the architect promised
to put the house up for that. But it cost just twice as much, to begin
with; that wasn't much! Then we had to build a barn; then we wanted a
horse and carryall and wagon; so one thing led to another, and it was
too far away for me to look after it, and at length, after seven
years, we sold it. I couldn't bear to think of it or to speak of it
for a long time. I loved the trees, and while our children were little
it was a good place for them; but we had to sell it; and it was better
in the end, although I felt lost without it for a great while.
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