een cloth; two or three chairs were the table's
contemporaries, to judge by their style, and nothing harder or less
accommodating to the love of ease ever entered surely a cabinetmaker's
brain. The wood of which they were made had, however, come to be of a
soft brown colour, through the influence of time, and the form was not
inelegant. The floor was bare and painted, and upon it lay here an old
rug and there a great thick bearskin; and on the walls there were
several heads of animals, which seemed to Esther very remarkable and
extremely ornamental. One beautiful deer's head, with elegant horns;
and one elk head, the horns of which in their sweep and extent were
simply enormous; then there were one or two fox heads, and a raccoon;
and besides all these, the room was adorned with two or three birds,
very well mounted. The birds, as the animals, were unknown to Esther,
and fascinated her greatly. Books were in this room too, though not in
large numbers; a flower press was in one place, a microscope on the
table, a kind of _etagere_ was loaded with papers; and there were
boxes, and glasses, and cases; and a general air of a place where a
good deal of business was done, and where a variety of tastes found at
least attempted gratification. It was a pleasant room, though the
description may not sound like it; the heterogeneous articles were in
nice order; plenty of light blazed in at the windows, and the bearskin
on the floor looked eminently comfortable. If that were luxurious, it
was the only bit of luxury in the room.

'Where will you sit?' asked its owner, looking round. 'There isn't
anything nice enough for you. I must look up a special chair for you to
occupy when you come here. How do you like my room?'

'I like it--very much,' said Esther slowly, turning her eyes from one
strange object to another.

'Nobody comes here but me, so we shall have no interruption to fear.
When you come to see me, Queen Esther, you will just go straight
through the house, out on the piazza, and up these stairs, with out
asking anybody; and then you will turn the handle of the door and come
in, without knocking. If I am here, well and good; if I am not here,
wait for me. You like my deer's horns? I got them up in Canada, where I
have been on hunting expeditions with my father.'

'Did _you_ kill them?'

'Some of them. But that great elk head I bought.'

'What big bird is that?'

'That? That is the white-headed eagle--the American eagl