Page:The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.djvu/468

412 cheerful, jaunty structure which it is to-day. She added bow-windows and verandas, built a porte-cochère at the front of the house and a tower at the southeast corner. Pleasant View is in Pleasant Street, about a mile and a half west of the centre of the city.

The traditions of mystery and seclusion which of late years have grown up about the place are hard to reconcile with its cheerful aspect. The house stands upon a little knoll, very near the road; the drives and gateway are wide; there are no high fences or shaded walks; the trees are kept closely trimmed, the turf neatly shaven, and the flower-beds are tidy and gay. There is a fountain, and a boat-house, and a fish-pond with a fine clump of willows. The tower rooms, which were occupied by Mrs. Eddy, have large windows looking southward down a narrow valley, at the end of which rise gentle green hills, one above another, their sides covered with fields and woodland which admirably distribute light and shadow. These hills, besides being peaceful and pleasant to the eye, must have had many associations for Mrs. Eddy, for among them lies the farm upon which she was born and where she spent her childhood. Every day for seventeen years Mrs. Eddy could look off toward Bow and measure the distance she had travelled. Whatever an architect or gardener might find to quarrel with at Pleasant View, it was certainly a cheerful place for an old lady to live in, and looked out over the gentlest and friendliest of landscapes.

After she moved into Pleasant View, Mrs. Eddy gradually added more land to the estate, enlarged the stables, and built a house for the gardener. She continued to live as simply and methodically as before. She rose early, and after breakfast