the new one intended to take their place. Underneath
them all was discovered, painted on the wall, artistic designs of
figures and foliage, such as were common in the days of the
Stuarts. All antiquarians are familiar with the similar
discoveries at Portsmouth, to which allusion has been made.

There are not many houses in America which have been so long owned
and occupied by the same name. The old brick mansion near
Portsmouth, of the Weeks family, the Curtis house at Boston
Highlands, Fairbanks at Dedham, Pickering at Salem, were
contemporaries in the period of the construction, and have
descended from sire to son as has this of the Coffins.

The house is pleasantly placed, and commands fine views from its
windows. Even in winter it must be, if not a cheerful, an
interesting abode to dwell in. In duller days, when skies are
leaden, and the more you see around you the less you like it, its
dreamy look of age and strangeness within and without may have a
somewhat depressing influence. The aches and agonies of so many
generations may gain an ascendancy over the exuberant joys that
made their life worth living. It would sometimes seem that if
fondness for the supernatural must be indulged, an old edifice like
this would prove a haunt more attractive, and certainly more
appropriate, for ghost and apparition than any school-room, however
noted for its spells. Yet notwithstanding some lugubrious
associations connected with the family patronymic, phantoms would
have to tread softly and whisper low if they invaded its precincts;
for the vigorous vitality of its occupants and their cheery tones,
if up to the traditional standard of their race, would exorcise the
very king of spectres himself, should he venture to stalk about at
the noonday, or revisit the glimpses of the moon in its ancient
chambers.

VI.

I might have mentioned, as one of the amusements of childhood, the
throwing of a piece of paper upon the embers of our wood-fire, for we had
no coal in those days, and watching the gradual extinguishment of the
sparks, likening it to a congregation entering the meeting-house. "There
they go in," we would say. "There's the minister;" and as the final spark
disappeared,--"Now, the sexton has gone in and shut the door." I speak of
this only as a curious illustration of English ways traditionally
surviving in New England. Thus Cowper tells us:--

"