Then our house could be near the neighbors, and our farm could stretch out a little way into the country beyond us.

Let us fix our minds upon such a house and I believe we can get it." So we fixed our minds, but in the course of a week or two we unfixed them several times to allow the consideration of places, which otherwise would have been out of range; and during one of these intervals of mental disfixment we took a house.
It was not the end-house of a village, but it was in the outskirts of a very small rural settlement.

Our nearest neighbor was within vigorous shouting distance, and the house suited us so well in other respects, that we concluded that this would do.

The house was small, but large enough.

There were some trees around it, and a little lawn in front.
There was a garden, a small barn and stable, a pasture field, and land enough besides for small patches of corn and potatoes.