General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1887 Original Publisher: H. Holt and Company Subjects: Fiction / General Fiction / Classics Fiction / Historical Fiction / Literary Fiction / Short Stories Literary Criticism / General Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER III. PARADISE FARM AND AUNT DIDO. clear, cold winter afternoon the village walks 1 are scraped clean of snow, the roads are packed hard as iron. White barricades rise in all the yards and along the street. The snow crunches and grinds to marble-powder under foot, and overhead it shakes down from the elm boughs in showers as sharp as steel filings. There is a sparkle from the solid blue sky diffused through all the air, and one must adjust the breathing apparatus to new conditions. The mere act of inspiration is a species of excitement; and a great tide of fresh blood brings a bloom like that of youth to old faces. The ice on the river and pond to-day has that dull semi-translucency, with long reaches of glitter and shine in the distance, that make one’s feet ache for runners. Come down the road for a quarter of a mile where it dips and winds so prettily, to the old bridge spanning the river. It was once a toll-bridge, but tolls are taken there no longer; and even the injunction not to drive your horse faster than a walk, under penalty of the law, is disregarded by every old hack and broken-winded jade in the township. The bridge was covered, originally, but the crazy old top blew off in a gale of wind, and it is now the roosting and angling place of all the children and idlers in the village. The small river curves away through low meadows and gently swelling breasts of hills in the laziest manner. It is…
