the lady jest smiled and
says: 'Would you sell me the little cradle, Miss Mayfield?' And I says:
'You may have it and welcome. If there is anything an old maid hasn't
any use for, it's a cradle.'

"They say the young girl is goin' to be married soon, and I reckon some
day that pretty young thing's children'll be lyin' in the old Stearns
cradle; and a lot o' that old mahogany, they tell me, goes to the
furnishin' of her room. Maybe she'll be writin' her letters at
Grandfather's secretary, and sleepin' on Grandmother's old canopy bed.
It don't seem right, Maria, for a pretty young bride to be beginnin'
life with a lot o' dead folks' furniture; but then, she won't have the
associations, and it's the associations that make old furniture so
unhealthy to have around the house.

"I reckon I must be some kin to the tribe o' Indians I was readin' about
in my missionary paper last Sunday. Every time anybody dies, they burn
everything that belonged to the dead person, and then they burn down the
place he died in and build a new one. That seems right wasteful, don't
it, Maria? But it's a good deal wholesomer to do that way, than to
clutter up your house with dead folks' belongin's like we do. And that's
why I'm gettin' so much pleasure out o' this new oak furniture. It's
mine, jest mine, and nobody else's. It didn't come down to me from my
great-grandmother; I went to the store and picked it out myself. No dead
person's hands ever touched it, and there's not a single association
hangin' anywheres around it.

"Yes, Maria, I got a good price for everything I sold. Because I didn't
want it, that's no reason why I should give it away. I could see the
lady wanted it mighty bad, so I valued it accordin' to what I thought
it'd be worth to her, and when I saw how willin' she was to pay my
price, I was right sorry I hadn't asked more.

"She was one o' the high-steppers, that lady was, but as sweet-talkin'
and nice-mannered as you please, and when she wrote out the check and
handed it to me, she says: 'When can I get the furniture?' 'Right now,'
says I, 'if you want it right now.' 'But,' says she, 'what will you do
without furniture? Hadn't you better get in your new beds and chairs and
tables before I take the old ones away?' And I says: 'Don't you worry
about me, ma'am; it's only four miles from here to town, and by the
time you get this old mahogany rubbish out, I'll have my new golden oak
things in; so don't you hold back on my accou