m times?
Jest think about the wood they had--cedars o' Lebanon an' fir-trees. You
know how he set folks to workin' in the mountains. I've al'ays thought
I'd like to ben up on them mountains an' heard the axes ringin' an'
listened to the talk. An' then there was pomegranates an' cherubim, an'
as for silver an' gold, they were as common as dirt. When I was a little
girl, I learnt them chapters, an' sometimes now, when I'm settin' by the
fire, I say over that verse about the 'man of Tyre, skillful to work in
gold, and in silver, in brass, in iron, in stone, and in timber, in
purple, in blue, and in fine linen, and in crimson.' My! ain't it rich?"

She drew a long breath of surfeited enjoyment. The schoolmaster's eyes
burned under his heavy brows.

"Then things smelt so good in them days," continued Miss Susan. "They
had myrrh an' frankincense, an' I dunno what all. I never make my
mincemeat 'thout snuffin' at the spice-box to freshen up my mind. No
matter where I start, some way or another I al'ays git back to Solomon.
Well, if Cap'n Ben wants to see foreign countries, I guess he'd be glad
to set a spell in the temple. Le's have on another stick--that big one
there by you. My! it's the night afore Christmas, ain't it? Seems if I
couldn't git a big enough blaze. Pile it on. I guess I'd as soon set the
chimbly afire as not!"

There was something overflowing and heady in her enjoyment. It
exhilarated the schoolmaster, and he lavished stick after stick on the
ravening flames. The maple hardened into coals brighter than its own
panoply of autumn; the delicate bark of the birch flared up and
perished.

"Miss Susan," said he, "don't you want to see all the people in the
world?"

"Oh, I dunno! I'd full as lieves set here an' think about 'em. I can fix
'em up full as well in my mind, an' perhaps they suit me better'n if I
could see 'em. Sometimes I set 'em walkin' through this kitchen, kings
an' queens an' all. My! how they do shine, all over precious stones. I
never see a di'mond, but I guess I know pretty well how 't would look."

"Suppose we could give a Christmas dinner,--what should we have?"

"We'd have oxen roasted whole, an' honey--an'--but that's as fur as I
can git."

The schoolmaster had a treasury of which she had never learned, and he
said musically:--

... "'a heap Of candied apple, quince, and plum, and gourd; With jellies
soother than the creamy curd, And lucid syrops, tinct with cinnamon;
Manna and date