The fact that I raised everything myself, practically by my own labor, added greatly to our enjoyment in the eating.
The walk between house and station was for most of the distance through a private lane which was in part shaded by large trees.
The quaint old village, one of the oldest in the State, was interesting; but not so the people, at least to us. It was a farming community, and of social life there was none.
Still, we felt that no privation. We had found what we sought—a pleasant, comfortable home, my return to good health, and economical living.
During the first year of our residence in the country our entire expenditure was but thirteen hundred dollars, which was fully three thousand dollars less than the year previous.
A few of our most intimate friends were invited occasionally for visits of a few days, and these little visits we always enjoyed; but to each other my wife and I were all-sufficient, and in the dear little home there was never a feeling of loneliness.
It was truly "love in a cottage."
During the summer, about once a week, I would hire from a farmer a horse and rockaway, and with wife and babies take a drive, our favorite ride having as an objective point a visit to the old Ford mansion, Washington's headquarters at Morristown.
There is certainly no section of country in the vicinity of New York city that can compare in natural beauty with Morris County, New Jersey, and we commanded the best of this, in rather antiquated style of equipage to be sure, but at the small cost of half a dollar for "all the afternoon."
Thinking of that old carriage recalls to mind an incident of later years which so impressed me I shall never forget it: