A fire so
bright and cheerful blazed on an enormous hearth in a sort of upper
kitchen, as to render candles or torches unnecessary. Around it were
seated six or seven hardy and athletic young men, some drawing coarse
tools carefully through the curvatures of ox-bows, others scraping down
the helves of axes, or perhaps fashioning sticks of birch into homely but
convenient brooms. A demure, side-looking young woman kept her great wheel
in motion; while one or two others were passing from room to room, with
the notable and stirring industry of handmaidens, busied in the more
familiar cares of the household. A door communicated with an inner and
superior apartment. Here was a smaller but an equally cheerful fire, a
floor which had recently been swept, while that without had been freshly
sprinkled with river sand; candles of tallow, on a table of cherry-wood
from the neighboring forest; walls that were wainscoted in the black oak
of the country, and a few other articles, of a fashion so antique, and of
ornaments so ingenious and rich, as to announce that they had been
transported from beyond sea.
Pages:
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64