Aunt Sarah and Mary spent few idle moments while carrying out their
plans for "doing over" the old parlor. Finally, 'twas finished. Mary
breathed a sigh of satisfaction as the last picture was hung on the
wall. She turned to her Aunt, saying, "Don't you think the room looks
bright, cheery and livable?"

"Yes," replied her Aunt, "and what is more essential, homey, I have
read somewhere, 'A woman's house should be as personal a matter as a
spider's web or a snail's shell; and all the thought, toil and love
she puts into it should be preserved a part of its comeliness and
homelikeness forever, and be her monument to the generations.'"

"Well, Aunt Sarah," replied Mary, "I guess we've earned our monument.
The air that blows over the fields, wafted in from the open window, is
sweet with the scent of grain and clover, and certainly is refreshing.
I'm dreadfully tired, but so delighted with the result of our labors.
Now we will go and 'make ready,' as Sibylla says, before the arrival
of Ralph from the city. I do hope the ice cream will be frozen hard.
The Sunshine Sponge Cake, which I baked from a recipe the Professor's
wife gave me, is light as a feather. 'Tis Ralph's favorite cake. Let's
see; besides Ralph there are coming all the Schmidts, Lucy Robbins,
the school teacher, and Sibylla entertains her Jake in the kitchen. I
promised to treat him to ice cream; Sibylla was so good about helping
me crack the ice to use for freezing the cream. We shall have an 'Old
Song Evening' that will amuse every one."

Quite early, as is the custom in the country, the guests for the
evening arrived; and both Mary and Aunt Sarah felt fully repaid for
their hard work of the past weeks by the pleasure John Landis evinced
at the changed appearance of the room.