13,610
edits
Changes
→Shady Hill
The logs, rough outside with bark, were inside smooth and clean looking, with chinks of mortar showing between them. The furnishing of the living room was, of necessity, a very simple matter. Clean straw was scattered thickly over half of the floor, and a striped rag carpet carefully tacked down. Between the two windows stood a table with two leaves, closed when not in use. In one corner stood the melodion, in the other a bureau with bookshelves above it. A few pictures hung on the wall, and on a tiny shelf was the dear old clock. Snowy curtains at the windows; two rockers and a few straight chairs completed the arrangement of our sitting room. The side was full and certainly looked cosey (sic).
We had only to step off the carpet to be in the kitchen. A kitchen stove stood near the door leading upstairs; a low bench was under the window for wash-basin and water-pail, and a roller towel was on the door nearby. At the other end was a cupboard and a kitchen table. Father built a snug little shed outside for wood, which served as kitchen in the summer. Oh, my granddaughters, in your pretty houses with beautiful furniture! Do you think <u>you</u> could be happy in such a home<u>?</u>
Now a look out-of-doors. The house stood well back from the road, along which was a row of Lombardy poplars, the whole width of the farm. West and north of the house a grove of small trees had been planted to make a "wind-break". Beyond this was a fine young orchard, beginning to bear many kinds of apples.
We had not enough to do with the work of our school. The teacher kindly suggested that we should take up Natural Philosophy and Physical Geography on alternate days, and he would hear our recitations after school. Some weeks passed and we were enjoying our special lessons very much, when the trustees heard of it. They straightaway ordered the lessons discontinued. In vain the teacher explained that he gave none of the school time to us; the only answer was: "It must be stopped". We were indignant! The teacher was not less so, feeling sure that jealousy was at the bottom of it.
My father said: "Nevermind, Anna; next winter you shall go to Sycamore and study <u>Latin<u> if you like." And I did, the next two winters. But <u>Mother<u> said: "I guess it is just as well; I think you and Etta carry your heads rather high." And now I think of it, I am afraid we did. Pride is ever a hot bed for the growth of evil; while the graces of the spirit, all things pure and lovely, flourish in the sweet soil of humility.
* ''Anna's chum was Eunicott Etta Robinson Nickerson (b. 1841 N.Y. - d. 1913 Glendale, Los Angeles, CA), emigrated to Kingston, Mayfield, DeKalb, IL by 1850, her father was a farmer, and one of the family's neighbors was Mulford & Eunace Nickerson. In 1860, the area the family lived was called Lacey, and in 1870 in Sycamore. She had one younger brother, William H. Robinson (1849-1893). Etta married Mulford Nickerson. Mulford's vitals: (b. 1834 N.Y. - d. 1910 San Fernando, Los Angeles, CA).''