But it was a help," she sighed at last, wiping her eyes on her kitchen
apron. "And I don't know how I'm going to do my spring sewing without
it."

John stretched out his right leg, thrust his hand into his pocket, and
pulled out a ragged leather purse, not too well filled.

"What's mine's yours, Mary," he said, tossing it into her lap. "Get a
seamstress to do your sewing. If I catch you at that machine again, I'll
make kindlin' wood and old iron out of it, and if that agent ever comes
on the place again with his blamed charts, there's a loaded shotgun
waitin' for him."

OLD MAHOGANY

"Come in, Maria Marvin, come in. No, it ain't too early for visitors.
I've jest finished sweepin' and dustin', and that's exactly the time I
want to see company; and when company comes at exactly the right time,
they get a double welcome from me. Have this chair, and I'll lay your
bonnet right here on the table.

"Yes, I've been refurnishin' some. Got rid o' all the old plunder that
'd been accumulatin' under this roof ever since Noah built his ark, and
bought a spick and span new outfit, golden oak every bit of it, and
right up to day before yesterday, and to-day, and day after to-morrow,
when it comes to style. I reckon Mother and grandmother and
great-grandmother have turned over in their graves, but I can't help it.
That old mahogany furniture has been my cross, and I've borne it
faithfully from a child up, and when I saw a chance o' layin' it down, I
didn't stop to think what my ancestors would say about it; I jest
dropped the cross and drew one good, long breath.

"You'd think I'd hate to part with the family belongin's? Well, you
wouldn't think so if you knew how much trouble these same belongin's
have been to me all my born days. You know everybody has idols. Some
women make idols of their children, and now and then you'll find a woman
bowin' down and worshippin' her husband, but Mother's idols were chairs
and tables and bedsteads. You've noticed, haven't you, that there's
always one child in a family that'll get nearly everything belongin' to
the family? They'll claim this and that and the other, and the rest o'
the children will give in to 'em jest to keep from havin' a quarrel.
Well, Mother was the claimin' one in our family, and whatever she
claimed she got, and whatever she got she held on to it. If Mother'd
been content with the things that her mother handed down to her, it
wouldn't 'a' been so bad, but there ne