There was cheer in every face and a spring in every step. The locust-trees were in bloom and the of the blossoms filled the air. Cardiff Hill, beyond the village and above it, was with vegetation and it lay just far enough away to seem a Delectable Land, dreamy, reposeful, and inviting. Tom appeared on the sidewalk with a of whitewash and a long-handled . He surveyed the fence, and all gladness left him and a deep melancholy settled down upon his spirit. Thirty yards of board fence nine feet high. Life to him seemed hollow, and existence but a burden. , he dipped his brush and passed it along the topmost plank; the operation; did it again; compared the insignificant whitewashed streak with the far-reaching continent of unwhitewashed fence, and sat down on a tree-box . Jim came skipping out at the gate with a pail, and singing Buffalo Gals. Bringing from the town pump had always been hateful work in Tom's eyes, before, but now it did not strike him so.