t there wasn't any room or chintz."

"_That is just it._ They had decided that mother had imagined it all,
and yet you see how exactly everything was painted in her mind, for she
had even remembered that Hiram had told her that Maria could have
married the sea-captain if she had wanted to!

"The India cotton was the regular blue-stamped chintz, with the peacock
figure on it. The head and body of the bird were in profile, while the
tail was full front view behind it. It had seemed to take mamma's fancy,
and she drew it for me on a piece of paper as she talked. Doesn't it
seem strange to you that she could have made all that up, or even
dreamed it?

"At the foot of the lounge were some hanging-shelves with some old books
on them. All the books were leather-colored except one; that was bright
red, and was called the _Ladies' Album_. It made a bright break between
the other thicker books.

"On the lower shelf was a beautiful pink sea-shell, lying on a mat made
of balls of red-shaded worsted. This shell was greatly coveted by
mother, but she was only allowed to play with it when she had been
particularly good. Hiram had showed her how to hold it close to her ear
and hear the roar of the sea in it.

"I know you will like Hiram, Roger, he is quite a character in his way.

"Mamma said she remembered, or _thought_ she remembered, having been
sick once, and she had to lie quietly for some days on the lounge; then
was the time she had become so familiar with everything in the room, and
she had been allowed to have the shell to play with all the time. She
had had her toast brought to her in there, with make-believe tea. It was
one of her pleasant memories of her childhood; it was the first time she
had been of any importance to anybody, even herself.

"Right at the head of the lounge was a light-stand, as they called it,
and on it was a very brightly polished brass candlestick and a brass
tray, with snuffers. That is all I remember of her describing, except
that there was a braided rag rug on the floor, and on the wall was a
beautiful flowered paper--roses and morning-glories in a wreath on a
light-blue ground. The same paper was in the front room."

"And all this never existed except in her imagination?"

"She said that when she and father went up there, there wasn't any
little room at all like it anywhere in the house; there was a
china-closet where she had believed the room to be."

"And your aunts said there had neve