"
"It is rather solemn," admitted Mr. Emerson. "You'll be interested to
know that merry Dr. Holmes used to come to Pittsfield in the summer.
There are many associations with him in the town."
"I'm sure he wrote gayer poems than 'The Old Clock on the Stairs' when
he was here."
"Is this a very old town?" Ethel Blue asked.
"It was settled in 1743. Does that seem old to you?"
[Illustration: "It was settled in 1743"]
"1743," Ethel repeated, doing some subtraction by the aid of her
fingers, for arithmetic was not her strong point. "A hundred and
eighty-seven years," she decided after reflection. "Yes, that seems
pretty old to me. It's a lot older than Rosemont but over a hundred
years younger than Plymouth or Boston."
"A sort of middle age," Mr. Emerson summed up her decision with a smile.
After luncheon at the hotel an early afternoon car sped on with them to
a station whence they took an automobile for a drive through
Stockbridge and Lenox with their handsome estates and lovely views.
The trolley whizzed them back over the same route to North Adams and
westward to Williamstown.
"One of my brothers--your great-uncle James, Ethel Brown--went to
Williams College," said Mr.
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