end; for, whatever else our forefathers left undone, there was no stinginess in their notions of warmth either in this world or in the world to come. As I have intimated, from a certain point of view the real architecture of these houses, as far as it went, was as good as that of a Greek temple or a Gothic cathedral. They were strictly utilitarian. There was no attempt to make them beautiful; but, planting themselves gradually all over New England, shaded by sweeping elms and the solid verdure of the sugar maples in the valleys, or clinging with an appearance of humility, but tremendously stubborn humility, to the rocky, windswept hillsides, they had at least the charm of quiet simplicity and graceful adaptation to the landscape which they civilized and adorned.
      The roof treatment of these primitive types varied in the different colonies, and changed as the years passed by. In fact, the variation of roof lines was the most prominent characteristic of species, both as to origin and chronology. Differences of climate and varying domestic usages brought or inherited from Europe, led to minor differences of plan; but, as the shape of a man's head is apt to be an indication of his character, so the phrenology of the roof indicates with more or less accuracy the age and family to which the house belongs. The English who colonized Massachusetts and Virginia reproduced, as soon