They asked would we agree to be photographed as long-time, typical clients for their new website because the webmaster felt that people-pictures would be a draw, and they hadn't enough of them on the old website. Our hostess busy as usual, this time painting the new hutch they had put together for their little rabbit, (a true old-fashioned barn-red), discussed the issue with us for the second time since our arrival a few days back.

The two miniature goats they had brought into their menagerie six years earlier are in fine shape, nicely matured, the ram batting his horns against the fence post, the female more laid back, though both were curious about sniffing our hands, and meeting Riley's curious snout.

The household's daughter who along with her two brothers was a pre-teen when we first saw them, is now a professional stable manager, working for a Boston-area family of means, looking after their personal stable of thoroughbred horses. Her passion for the equine world realized. She now lives a two-hour drive in her own apartment on the property where she works. Her previous employment had been in Connecticut, leaving her a much longer drive to get back home again to New Hampshire, and she is much happier in her new surroundings.

She drives home most weekends to touch base, admitting she finds comfort in the natural friendliness of the folks in her home state as opposed to the reserve of people from Massachusetts whose snobbery and indifference to the presence of others seems legendary.

So we made ourselves available later in the afternoon, to arrive back at the cottage earlier than we would ordinarily, after a climb in the Rattlesnakes. The professional photographer came along with our hosts as they knocked at the cottage door to inform us that the photography session was about to take place. The photographer was a young, friendly man who knew his business, and attempted to pose us in a manner that might appear spontaneous but seemed anything but, to us.

All of us cracked jokes, though, and it turned out to be an entertaining experience. My husband initially suggested a good picture could be hand by providing us with a pitchfork, a la American Gothic. That didn't occur; instead we moved about on the property to make various settings evident in the photographs, from the background mountains beyond, to the gracious setting of the main house as we sat variously on deck chairs and on a glider, instructed to please regard one another and animatedly discuss our adventure of the day in a demonstration of happy tourists geared to the outdoor life, having chosen the excellent accommodation available in the White Forest National preserve, as a handy jumping-off point to a multitude of physical natural challenges.

We were, in fact, rather giddy with amusement over the entire episode, and despite that this was costing them a professional fee, Donna and Byron relaxed enough about the venture to try out their innumerable bright quips eliciting laughter in all of us. Riley not so much.