hot summer days; but I
supposed that was because Sally didn't want to be seen fixing Peter's
tie until she was ready. She made no bones about it then. She fixed
it whenever she pleased; likewise he held her hand. Shelley said that
was disgusting, and you wouldn't catch her. Leon said he bet a dollar
he would; and I said if he knew he'd get beaten as I did, I bet two
dollars he wouldn't tell what he saw. The mantel was white, with vases
of the lovely grasses that grew beside the stream at the foot of the
Big Hill. Mother gathered the fanciest every fall, dried them, and
dipped them in melted alum coloured with copperas, aniline, and indigo.
Then she took bunches of the colours that went together best and made
bouquets for the big vases. They were pretty in the daytime, but at
night you could watch them sparkle and shimmer forever.

I always thought the sitting-room was nicer than the parlour. The
woodwork was white enamel there too, but the bureau and chairs were
just cherry and not too precious to use. They were every bit as
pretty. The mantel was much larger. I could stand up in the
fireplace, and it took two men to put on an everyday log, four the
Christmas one. On each side were the book shelves above, and the linen
closets below. The mantel set between these, and mother always used
the biggest, most gorgeous bouquets there, because she had so much
room. The hearth was a slab of stone that came far into the room. We
could sit on it and crack nuts, roast apples, chestnuts, and warm our
cider, then sweep all the muss we made into the fire. The wall paper
was white and pale pink in stripes, and on the pink were little handled
baskets filled with tiny flowers of different colours. We sewed the
rags for the carpet ourselves, and it was the prettiest thing. One
stripe was wide, all gray, brown, and dull colours, and the other was
pink. There were green blinds and lace curtains here also, and nice
braided rugs that all of us worked on of winter evenings. Everything
got spicker and spanner each day.

Mother said there was no use in putting down a carpet in a dining-room
where you constantly fed a host, and the boys didn't clean their feet
as carefully as they should in winter; but there were useful rags where
they belonged, and in our bedroom opening from it also. The
dining-room wall paper had a broad stripe of rich cream with pink
cabbage roses scattered over it and a narrow pink stripe, while the
w