ver was a member o' the family
died that Mother didn't manage to get hold o' some of the belongin's. If
there was a sale, she was the first one there, and she'd take her seat
right under the auctioneer's hammer, and if she made up her mind to have
an old chair or an old table, why, nobody ever could outbid her; and in
the course o' time the house got to be more like an old junk shop than
a home. I used to tell Mother she got everything belongin' to her dead
kinfolks except their tombstones, and I wouldn't 'a' been surprised any
day to come home and find one or two nice old gravestones settin' up on
the mantel-piece for ornaments, or propped up handy in a corner.

"And every piece of that old mahogany, Maria, was polished till you
could see your face in it. The first thing after breakfast, Mother'd get
a piece o' chamois skin or an old piece o' flannel, and she'd go around
rubbin' up her chairs and tables and lookin' for scratches on 'em; and
as soon as I was old enough to hold a rag, I had to do a certain amount
o' polishin' every day, and when Mother's rheumatism settled in her
arms, all the polishin' fell to me. It looked like the furniture was on
Mother's mind night and day, and it was: 'Samantha, have you polished
your grandfather's secretary?' 'Samantha, don't forget to rub off the
parlor center-table.' No matter what I wanted to do, I couldn't do it
till that old furniture was attended to. When I look back, Maria, it
seems to me I've been livin' all my life in the valley of the shadow of
old mahogany. You know how it is when the sun comes out after a long
spell of cloudy weather. Well, that's jest the way it was the day that
old mahogany furniture went out o' the house, and this pretty yellow
furniture came in. I really believe that was the happiest day of my
life.

"Yes, there's a heap of associations connected with old furniture, and
Mother's old furniture had more associations than most anybody's. I
believe there was enough associations to 'a' filled every one o' the
bureau drawers, and if you'd put the associations on the tables or on
the beds, there wouldn't 'a' been room there for anything else. And
that's exactly why I wanted to get rid o' that mahogany furniture. I
believe I could 'a' stood the furniture, if it hadn't been for the
associations. What good did it do me to look at that old four-poster
that used to stand in the front room up-stairs and think o' the time I
laid on that bed six mortal weeks, wh