The brook gave Adam 's ale of unsurpassed crystal . For the rest , there was a certain sauce , compounded of fresh air and appetite of youth , which gave to everything a divine flavour . To sit in Rainbow Valley , steeped in a twilight half gold , half amethyst , rife with the odours of balsam-fir and woodsy growing things in their springtime prime , with the pale stars of wild strawberry blossoms all around you , and with the sough of the wind and tinkle of bells in the shaking tree tops , and eat fried trout and dry bread , was something which the mighty of earth might have envied them . `` Sit in , '' invited Nan , as Jem placed his sizzling tin platter of trout on the table . `` It 's your turn to say grace , Jem . '' `` I 've done my part frying the trout , '' protested Jem , who hated saying grace . `` Let Walter say it . He LIKES saying grace . And cut it short , too , Walt . I 'm starving . '' But Walter said no grace , short or long , just then . An interruption occurred . `` Who 's coming down from the manse hill ? '' said Di . CHAPTER IV . THE MANSE CHILDREN Aunt Martha might be , and was , a very poor housekeeper ; the Rev. John Knox Meredith might be , and was , a very absent-minded , indulgent man . But it could not be denied that there was something very homelike and lovable about the Glen St. Mary manse in spite of its untidiness . Even the critical housewives of the Glen felt it , and were unconsciously mellowed in judgment because of it . Perhaps its charm was in part due to accidental circumstances -- the luxuriant vines clustering over its gray , clap-boarded walls , the friendly acacias and balm-of-gileads that crowded about it with the freedom of old acquaintance , and the beautiful views of harbour and sand-dunes from its front windows . But these things had been there in the reign of Mr. Meredith 's predecessor , when the manse had been the primmest , neatest , and dreariest house in the Glen .
So much XXXXX the credit must be given to the personality of its new inmates .
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