Page:The clerk of the woods.djvu/197

Rh headed for the "city-house lot," he told me.

"The city-house lot," said I; "what is that?"

"Why, there used to be two or three houses over in this direction. The largest of them, the one that stood the longest, was known as the city house. More than fifty years ago, before my father came here to live, it was moved to a place on the main road. You must remember it. It was pulled down, or fell to pieces, within six or eight years."

I did remember it, but had never known its name or its history. The surprising thing about the story was the fact that there was no indication of a road hereabout, nor any sign that there had ever been one; and all the while we were plunging deeper and deeper into the woods, now following a footpath, now leaving it for a short cut among the trees. By and by we came to a drier spot, and an old cellar-hole. This was not the city-house cellar, however, but that of some smaller house. About it were evidences of a former clearing, though a casual