. One or two were slowly
assuming the russet of age; while the uncovered beams that were to be seen
through the broken windows of their second stories, showed, that either the
taste, or the vanity of their proprietors, had led them to undertake a task,
which they were unable to accomplish. The whole were grouped in a manner that
aped the streets of a city, and were evidently so arranged, by the directions of
one, who looked to the wants of posterity, rather than to the convenience of the
present incumbents. Some three or four of the better sort of buildings, in
addition to the uniformity of their colour, were fitted with green blinds,
which, at that season at least, were rather strangely contrasted to the chill
aspect of the lake, the mountains, the forests, and the wide fields of snow.
Before the doors of these pretending dwellings, were placed a few saplings
either without branches, or possessing only the feeble shoots of one or two
summers' growth, that looked not unlike tall grenadiers on post, near the
threshold of princes. In truth, the occupants of these favoured habitations were
the nobles of Templeton, as Marmaduke was its king. They were the dwellings of
two young men who were cunning in the law; an equal number of that class who
chaffered to the wants of the community, under the title of store-keepers; and a
disciple of Æsculapius, who, for a novelty, brought more subjects into the world
than he sent out of it. In the midst of this incongruous group of dwellings,
rose the mansion of the Judge, towering above all its neighbours. It stood in
the centre of an enclosure of several acres, which were covered with
fruit-trees. Some of the latter had been left by the Indians, and began already
to assume the moss and inclination of age, therein forming a very marked
contrast to the infant plantations that peer'd over most of the picketed fences
of the village. In addition to this show of cultivation, were two rows of young
Lombardy poplars, a tree but lately introduced into America, formally lining
either side of a path-way, which led from a gate, that opened on the principal
street, to the front door of the building. The house itself had been built
entirely under the superintendence of a certain Mr. Richard Jones, whom we have
already mentioned, and who, from his cleverness in small matters, and an entire
willingness to exert his talents, added to the circumstance of their being
sisters' children, ordinarily superintended all the minor concerns of Marmaduke
