and parlor. I remember well how pleased she was when she got a rag-carpet
to cover the floor.

Now I have in my mind's eye a view of my mother's front room. Ah! there
is the door on the south with its wooden latch and leather string. East
of the door is a window, and under it stands a wooden bench, with a water
pail on it; at the side of the window hangs the tin dipper. In the corner
beyond this stands the ladder, the top resting on one side of an opening
through which we entered the chamber. In the centre of the east end
burned the cheerful fire, at the left stood a kettle, pot and
bread-kettle, a frying pan (with its handle four feet long) and griddle
hung over them. Under the north window stood a table with its scantling
legs, crossed, and its whitewood board top, as white as hands and ashes
could scour it. Farther on, in the north-west corner stood mother's bed,
with a white sheet stretched on a frame made for that purpose, over it,
and another at the back and head. On the foot and front of the frame were
pinned calico curtains with roses and rosebuds and little birds, some
perched on a green vine that ran through the print, others on the wing,
flying to and from their straw colored nests. These curtains hung, oh,
how gracefully, around that bed! They were pinned back a little at the
front, revealing a blue and white coverlet, of rare workmanship. In the
next and last corner stood the family cupboard. The top shelves were
filled with dishes, which mother brought from the state of New York. They
were mostly blue and white, red and white and there were some on the top
shelf which the children called their "golden edged dishes."

The bottom of the cupboard was inclosed; by opening two small doors I
could look in. I found not there the luxuries of every clime, but what
was found there was eaten with as much relish as the most costly viands
would be now. It was a place I visited often. In hooks attached to a beam