These carpenters, and more, were kept busy throughout that entire spring and well into the summer.

Then came painters and gardeners.

The piazza disappeared; a new picket fence, exactly like the old one torn down by the Howeses, was erected; new shutters were hung; new windowpanes were set; the roof was newly shingled.

Captain Cy, Senior, had, in his day, cherished a New England fondness for white and green paint; therefore the new fence was white and the house was white and the blinds a brilliant green.

Rows of box hedge, the plants brought from Boston, were set out on each side of the front walk.