forty or fifty yards, was the rear of a range of buildings, which
appeared to be spacious, modern, and calculated for fashionable residences. The
interval between was apportioned into grass-plots, and here and there an apology
for a garden, pertaining severally to these dwellings. There were apple-trees,
and pear and peach-trees, too, the fruit on which looked singularly large,
luxuriant, and abundant; as well it might, in a situation so warm and sheltered,
and where the soil had doubtless been enriched to a more than natural fertility.
In two or three places, grape-vines clambered upon trellises, and bore clusters
already purple, and promising the richness of Malta or Madeira in their ripened
juice. The blighting winds of our rigid climate could not molest these trees and
vines; the sunshine, though descending late into this area, and too early
intercepted by the height of the surrounding houses, yet lay tropically there,
even when less than temperate in every other region. Dreary as was the day, the
scene was illuminated by not a few sparrows and other birds, which spread their
wings, and flitted and fluttered, and alighted now here, now there, and busily
scratched their food out of the wormy earth. Most of these winged people seemed
to have their domicile in a robust and healthy buttonwood-tree. It aspired
upward, high above the roof of the houses, and spread a dense head of foliage
half across the area.
    There was a cat - as there invariably is, in such places - who evidently
thought herself entitled to all the privileges of forest-life, in this close
heart of city-conventionalisms. I watched her creeping along the low, flat roofs
of the offices, descending a flight of wooden steps, gliding among the grass,
and besieging the buttonwood-tree, with murderous purpose against its feathered
citizens. But, after all, they were birds of city-breeding, and doubtless knew
how to guard themselves against the peculiar perils of their position.
    Bewitching to my fancy are all those nooks and crannies, where Nature, like
a stray partridge, hides her head among the long-established haunts of men! It
is likewise to be remarked, as a general rule, that there is far more of the
picturesque, more truth to native and characteristic tendencies, and vastly
greater suggestiveness, in the back view of a residence, whether in town or
country, than in its front The latter is always artificial; it is meant for the
world's eye, and is therefore a veil and a concealment. Realities