Ellen
did not stay long to look, but went out to find something
pleasanter. A few yards from the shed door was the little gate
through which she had stumbled in the dark, and outside of
that Ellen stood still a while. It was a fair, pleasant day,
and the country scene she looked upon was very pretty. Ellen
thought so. Before her, at a little distance, rose the great
gable end of the barn, and a long row of outhouses stretched
away from it towards the left. The ground was strewn thick
with chips; and the reason was not hard to find, for a little
way off, under an old stunted apple-tree, lay a huge log, well
chipped on the upper surface, with the axe resting against it;
and close by were some sticks of wood both chopped and
unchopped. To the right, the ground descended gently to a
beautiful plane meadow, skirted on the hither side by a row of
fine apple-trees. The smooth green flat tempted Ellen to a
run, but first she looked to the left. There was the garden,
she guessed, for there was a paling fence which enclosed a
pretty large piece of ground; and between the garden and the
house a green slope ran down to the spout. That reminded her
that she intended making a journey of discovery up the course
of the long trough. No time could be better than now; and she
ran down the slope.
The trough was supported at some height from the ground by
little heaps of stones, placed here and there along its whole
course.
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