“Here we are, and you see have christened the house properly, I assure you, as the martins have colonized all round it, and doubly lucky must the house be on which they so build and bemire. We hesitated between the appropriate names of Rat Hall, Mouse Mansion, Vermin Villa, Cockroach Castle, Cobweb Cottage, and Spider Lodge; but, as we routed out the spiders, brushed away the cobwebs, stopped the rat holes, and found no cockroaches, we bethought us of the animals without, and dubbed it Martin Hall.
“I am sorry, Tom, you could not have seen us settled,—you would like the old house; and the view from the drawing-room and garden is delightful; we have turned to most notably. But once the house was an inn, or alehouse, so we have had application to sell beer, and buy a stock of tobacco-pipes. Much has been done, and much is yet to do. The rooms are large, the garden well stocked; we cut our own cabbages, live upon currant puddings, and shall soon be comfortably settled. . . . .
“I wish you had been here, you might have been up to your eyes in dirt and rubbish. . . . . We have bespoke a cat, a great carroty cat.”
