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Showing posts sorted by date for query apple. Sort by relevance Show all posts

Thursday, July 17, 2025

All The Days of July . . .

         Kids can celebrate all the days of July here by using our family blog posts. I will highlight the days of celebration in the United States/Canada with a pale orange color and the world days of observation with a pale lavender highlight. Sometimes the themes repeat themselves and so I will choose to list a topic under a month that has less content in order to spread things out a bit. I will be covering all of the months of the year. Readers will notice that I make additions to the listings over time and that I also choose content that is age appropriate in order to maintain my certifications.

1.) National Postal Worker Day - Post office related content here. 

2.) National Firefighter Day - The recycled fire fighter costume, fire fighter coloring pages

3.) National Hawaii Day - Visit our collection of Hawaii themed crafts and articles here and here.

4.) Independence Day (USA) - See our American patriotic doll crafts here.

5.) National Apple Turnover Day

6.) National Fried Chicken Day

7.) World Chocolate Day, - Celebrate world chocolates on July 7th

8.) Liberty Bell Day - Read about the Liberty Bell...

9.) National Sugar Cookie Day - sugar cookies on cookie sheets, hearts and stars sugar cookies

10.) Teddy Bear Picnic Day - Our collection of teddy bear crafts and articles here. National Kitten Day - Read about "Raggedy Ann and The Kittens"

11.) Cheer Up the Lonely Day

12.) National Eat Your Jello Day  - Craft tiny Jello products, coming soon

13.) National French Fry Day - How we crafted deep fried doll foods

14.) National Mac and Cheese Day - Macaroni and cheese casserole is sculpted along with many other side dishes here. and Cow Appreciation Day - The Ox and The Cow article

15.) National Give Something Away Day - share your dolls, make crafts for your friends

16.) World Snake Day - Make a friendly snake habitat for your doll, coming soon

17.) World Emoji Day -  Read about antiquated smilies, forerunners of Emojis, originally drawn and made famous by Harvey Peake. (and also the origin of the word 'twitter.')

18.) National Tropical Fruit Day - Search our growing collections of tropical fruits for dolls here and tropical fruits coloring sheets here

19.) National Ice Cream Day - So many flavors to make and for doll's to taste!

20.) World Chess Day - How we made a chess board for dolls.  and  Space Exploration Day - See our favorite links to space and dollplay here!

21.) Take a Monkey to Lunch Day - How to sew a mini sock monkey for your dolls...

22.) National Hammock Day - Our doll hammock craft for lazy Summer days...

23.) National Hot Dog Day - Our classic doll camp foods playset includes all American hot dogs!

24.) National Amelia Earhart Day  

25.) National Thread the Needle DayCheck out our sewing projects for doll lovers.

26.) National Parents Day - Download and print out this lovely Birth Certificate to commemorate the first time you become a baby doll's new parent. and Then, give your new baby doll a name...

27.) Bagpipe Appreciation Day 

28.) World Nature Conservation Day - The index to our large collection of nature studies...

29.) National Lipstick Day - Craft doll-sized lip sticks. 

30.) Cheesecake Day - craft coming soon

31.) Harry Potter's Birthday - Read about Harry Potter and Friends Dolls

Wednesday, July 9, 2025

Your Birthday Trees

       A tree, like all growing things, belongs, in a way, to all who enjoy it. But it is a splendid idea for you to have a tree that is definitely your own. A tree that is at its best during your birthday month will soon come to be a real member of the family, watched and cherished.
       Many children plant their own trees. If your birthday happens to come in March or April, you can plant an oak or an elm, an apple or a maple, to celebrate the day, and as you grow, the tree grows with you. Presently you stop growing, but the tree goes on, and by the time you are a man or woman you will look at your tree and marvel at its size and beauty. It will some day give you a great thrill to tell some little child how you planted the acorn from which the oak grew, or the apple tree when it was only a whip. Many a grown man points with pride to some old tree that his grandfather planted.
       The trees that lose their leaves in winter are called deciduous trees and these can be planted successfully only when they are dormant or asleep, which is in the early spring or late fall; but evergreen trees - all except the holly - can be planted at any time during the spring and fall. They must have plenty of water given them for the first year, and they will repay your care. Here is a list of trees and shrubs to plant for birthday months:
       If you were born in May, plant a dogwood tree in April.
       If you are a June child, plant a climbing rose in April or in the late fall before the ground freezes.
       If you want a tree to do its best for you in July, plant a black cherry in April.
       If August is your month, plant in April a pair of pale pink or white Rose of Sharon bushes.
       In September a mountain ash is a lovely sight with all of its red berries. And ash planted early in April may not have berries for a year or two, but once it is started, your ash will not forget your birthdays.
       In October a maple changes to gold or red, or an apple tree bears its gifts.
       In November the little Christmas rose in a sheltered corner begins to bloom, or bittersweet is bright with fruit.
      For the December baby the holly is at its best. January is the month when a white pine is a welcome friend amid the snow. In February a pussy-willow will greet you with its furry buds. In March you can bring in branches of forsythia, and they will burst into bloom. Now that it is April, you can choose for yourself, you April children, what shall be your birthday tree, shrub, or flower? Wodell.
 
Poem illustrated.

 
The Trees by John Martin

I turn away from my own fears,
And doubts and pain that come 
with these;
Forgetful of all loss and tears,
My soul communes with trees.

Oh, understanding friends of mine,
There are no heights or depths in me
Your fearless patience can't divine,
Your wisdom cannot see.

Your roots have pierced the somber earth;
You've spread your branches into
Heaven;
Tempest and sunshine taught you
mirth;
You've suffered and forgiven.
 
Your spirit speaks the living word
Out of the very heart of things.
The thunder and the song of bird
Out of your being springs.
 
No matter what I ask, you give;
An unmoved, faithfulness is yours.
I need not fret, complain, or strive,
When such calm strength endures.

You taught the meaning of true
prayer;
You bound God's goodness close
to me.
The perfect Song of Life
is where
He put His living Tree.

Wednesday, July 2, 2025

Our Unicorn Themed Doll Bedroom

The unicorn themed bedroom in our family dollhouse for 18 inch dolls. In this room there
are six pieces of furniture: the side table, canopy bed, a large dresser, a rocking chair,
a storage cabinet with sliding doors and a comfy cushion and a hanging curio cupboard.
There is also a hanging banner above the storage cabinet that I could not squeeze 
into the photo easily. I photo of it is below.

       To begin with, I completely upcycled a four-poster bed for this unicorn themed doll bedroom. Originally, it was painted white (from Our Generation called "My Sweet Canopy") but I chose to decoupage it with a lovely greyish-brown, faux-wood paper.

First I decoupaged the canopy bed once white with pink curtains. Then I painted the 'carved'
floral areas to match the woodgrain papers. After this I cut the mattress from a cushy piece
of foam, covered this with polka-dot sheet flannel and then cut and stuffed a bed pillow
in the same flannel fabric.

The flower motifs on the bed have been painted to match the decoupaged wood papers.
 The comforter is a blue print with unicorns. 

Left, see storage bench, for toys or games, with seat cushion. The sock unicorn and narwhal
 on top of cushion. The unicorn banners with three dimensional parts. Right is the large
 braided rug
, for more pictures go here. The floors of this bedroom are made using
 woodgrain contact papers.

Left, bedside table. Right, large wooden dresser.

       The tops of both the side table and large doll dresser feature the following on display: a large handmade lamp, a collection of 'My little Ponies' real miniature glass perfume bottles, a doll cell phone, handcrafted books and a decorative unicorn sculpture purchased at a dollar store.

Interior decoupaged with chevron and floral paper.

       The lavender painted cupboard may be either hung on the wall or displayed on top of the large white dresser. It displays all kinds of 18 inch doll accessories like: a mermaid figurine, nail polish, lipstick, sun glasses and a cup for soft drinks with a handle, a fancy hair comb, perfume, and a cell phone all displayed on the outside, side shelves. Behind the glass front cabinet door are shelves containing a selection of books, head phone for listening to music and a small frame of a doll's friend and puppy.
 
Left, mirror. Center, unicorn felt banner with 3d crown, mane and horn.
 Right, paint your own unicorn picture for the walls...

Fancy laser-cut frames.
     To make the framed unicorn colored picture (photo below), cut from scrap cardboard, the backing and then glue your own colored version of the following coloring sheets (unicorn with rainbow and/or unicorn with princess).
       To make the mirror, we simply cut a cardboard backing and then glued mirrored paper to this before attaching it to a fancy laser cut frame with masking tape.
       Craft the 3D unicorn framed in an oval laser cut frame by backing it with a sturdy piece of cardboard cut to size and mounted inside the frame. Then sculpt the facial features: mussel, horn, and eyes with oven-bake clay. Glue these features as you see them below inside of the frame. 
       Unravel a cotton ball and layer this with white glue to shape a mane around the horn and eyes. Let everything dry and then paint these features to make a unique piece of wall art. 

Paint the wooden unicorn flat using a selection of your favorite colors. Paste on the lace
to further decorate the unicorn.
  
Left, see the shaped clay pieces pasted onto the white cardboard. These were sculpted
with oven-bake clay and then pasted onto the cardboard. Right, see how to paint the
 unicorn one way simply. But, you may paint your own version with the colors you prefer.

More Doll Sized Unicorn Bedrooms:

  • American Girl Doll Unicorn Bedroom by Be Chic Forever - The room includes white furnishings with gold gilt trim, tiny unicorn dolls, a blue metal bed, pink star themed linens, contemporary tulle bed curtains, a bookcase, wardrobe storage and a variety of gold accessories like: a telephone, apple, clock, terrarium, signage etc....
  • American Girl Doll Unicorn Bedroom by agoverseasfan - Watch agoverseasfan decorate her doll's unicorn bedroom with unicorn toys, a pink and white unicorn theme, cute card quotes and white fuzzy furnishings and rug.
Left is a unicorn pillow with a lace mane and shiny fabric horn. Right, is a coloring page
 printed colored and pasted to cardboard that fit the inside of the fancy frame.

Sunday, June 29, 2025

Make Fruits From The Musaceae Family (Bananas)

       "Musaceae is a family of flowering plants composed of three genera with about 91 known species, placed in the order Zingiberales. The family is native to the tropics of Africa and Asia. The plants have a large herbaceous growth habit with leaves with overlapping basal sheaths that form a pseudostem making some members appear to be woody trees. In most treatments, the family has three generaMusaMusella and Ensete. Cultivated bananas are commercially important members of the family, and many others are grown as ornamental plants." Read more . . .

Left, apple-bananas. Center, red bananas. Right, Lady finger bananas all sculpted from oven-backe
clay and then painted using acrylic paints
.

Cavendish bananas are most commonly
purchased in the United States.
 

       "The cultivated banana is doubtless the most important and most widely grown of all tropical fruits. It is a conspicuous example of a cultivated plant which has definitely lost its ability to produce seed and must be propagated by shoots from its underground stem. It was originally a native of the tropics. There are two main types, the common banana and the dwarf Chinese or Cavendish banana, each with numerous varieties, especially the former. The variety generally grown in Central America and the West Indies for the U. S. market is known as Gros-Michel." Dahlgren

More About Bananas:

Saturday, June 14, 2025

Restoring The Our Generation Patio Treats Trolley

Above are photos of the refinished treats trolly by Our Generation, updated with faux wood
surfaces. Plus I had to restore the ice "sink" as it was missing from the piece I thrifted from
resale. I think this version looks far less manufactured. The new surfaces now look 
antique! I kept the 'marble' top and added a sink that looks like enamel.
 
        I found this treat trolley at resale. None of it's original foods or ice cubes were still with it. But, not to worry, I will show how to restore these play foods along with this brief review for those of you who are in need of making new accessories for your own playset.
       This trolley has three working wheels, is a periwinkle color with a granite looking top. There is a handle bar so that an 18 inch doll may be made to move the cart while she walks. 
       Originally, this cart would come with the following treats: a lemonade picture and two glasses of lemonade, two snow cones, two ice blocks, an ice bin (photo above), two ice cream pops, two sodas, a large fruit tray (below), tongs and two serving spoons, two dishes of ice cream and a floral display of some kind. Depending on the year you purchase this set, the flower pot with flowers may be different. I have also seen several versions of the fruit tray from different years and locations and some photos of the treat trolley also include a syrup bottle for the snow cones?

The surfaces have yet to be changed. Here you can see that I fitted the new sink first.
It is made from cardboard, masking tape and later painted white.

Left, see details from beneath. Center close-up of sink for ice and cold drinks. Right, the handle 
looks fine 'as-is' wouldn't change that at all.
 
       I decided to change the periwinkle color to better compliment our doll's cafe set. The faux granite top, a version in red, pink and white speckles, blends well with neutral grey and white so I will leave it alone. The gold colored handle bar also looks just as good with the chosen faux wood motif I selected for this project so this remained "untouched" as well. 
       I needed to make an ice bin to fill the hole in the top counter. I would have loved for it to been transparent like the original but I had to make it a painted cardboard ice bin instead. This version I painted white to blend with the granite top.
       There were several surfaces on this trolley that were covered with something sticky. Although I couldn't identify this substance, I removed it easily with cooking oil and a paper towel. Then I washed the cart afterwards with dish soap and warm water.
       I masked the periwinkle surfaces so that the decoupage would adhere properly. Then cut and fit the faux wood papers for every surface before applying even coats of white glue to the paper to stick to the trolley.  Afterwards I sealed it with a several coats of Mod Podge.
 
Left, I glued the Sculpey fruit slices directly inside of our covered tray. Center, side view. Right,
 the fruits include in our new version of the fruit tray include top to bottom: cantaloupe
cubes, kiwi slices, apple sections, mangos peeled and slices and strawberries.


This container once was used for a strange deck of cards.

Saturday, May 10, 2025

The story of Grasshopper Green and the Meadow Mice

 
       Of course you know the story of "The Grasshopper and the Ant"- and how one autumn, when the winds were growing raw and cold and the nights frosty, the poor Grasshopper, who hadn't done anything but fiddle and dance all through the pleasant summer and had nothing laid by for the hard winter, went to the thrifty Ant and asked for a bite to eat and a chance to warm his toes in the chimney corner. And how the tight-fisted Ant refused to help the Grasshopper.
       Ant said to the shivering Grasshopper, "Keep on fiddling and dancing, it may help to keep you warm!"
       This always seemed to me so cruel. 
       Now you've probably wondered, just as I used to, whatever finally became of that Grasshopper. 
       Well, dear old Great-Grandfather Goodheart, who knows all about such things, told me the following story one rainy day as we sat by the open fire roasting chestnuts. I enjoyed it so much that I'm sure you will too. 
       Now, make yourself comfortable and cozy and listen. After the sneering Ant had banged the door in his face, Grasshopper Green felt, as you may imagine miserable, forlorn and friendless.
       It was growing dark. He turned up the collar of his threadbare claw-hammer coat and shuffled along over the frozen ground, scarcely noticing where his benumbed feet were taking him. He tried wrapping himself in a fallen leaf; it was red and looked as though it might be warm. But, alas! it proved to be a very thin covering against the biting, icy wind. 
       He tried to cheer himself up by playing on his little fiddle, but his fingers were too cold to play lively, cheerful tunes. At last, feeling too chilled and hungry and discouraged to go any further, he sank down at the foot of an old apple tree. This was some protection at least from the wintry blasts which, by now, were moaning, "Whoo-ooh-whee-eeeh!" among the bare branches in a very disheartening way. 
       Poor Grasshopper Green wrapped his leaf cape tightly about him and, in spite of his chattering teeth, finally fell into an uneasy sleep. 
Grasshopper's bad dream.
       He dreamed that he was wandering over an immense field of ice. Suddenly there appeared before him a little red table, upon which was a large yellow bowl of steaming, fragrant broth! Beside the table stood a chair, over the back of which was thrown a thick, fur-lined coat. 
       Just as he reached for the coat, he heard a terrific howling, and the next moment a gigantic hand had swept past him, snatching away the coat and the soup, and so terrifying Grasshopper Green that he fell over backward-and awoke. 
       "Well, singe my whiskers, what's this? What's this?" he heard a hearty voice exclaiming, and, looking up, was astonished to find himself in the cozy home of a family of Meadow-Mice! 
       This is how it had happened. When Grasshopper Green sank down exhausted among the roots of the old apple tree, he had not noticed, in the darkness, that he was leaning against a small door; this was the door of the home of the Meadow-Mouse family, who lived here in a hollow part of the tree, near the roots. 
       An especially strong gust of wind had blown the door open and tumbled Grasshopper Green into the room. When he sat up and looked about he was not quite sure, at first, that this was not just a part of his dream. 
       Father and Mother Meadow-Mouse and their four children, Long-Tail, Sharp-Eyes, Pink-Ears, and Mouseykins, had finished their supper of cornbread and cheese, and Father Meadow-Mouse was telling of two narrow escapes he had had the night before, one from a horned owl and one from Farmer Green's cat, Mouser. He had just come to the most exciting part of his adventures and all the family were listening with breathless interest, when the door, which had been left unbolted, blew open, as I have told you, and in tumbled poor Grasshopper Green. 
       Father and Mother Meadow-Mouse helped him over to their most comfortable chair, by the fire, for the poor fellow was so benumbed by the cold that he could hardly even stand alone. 

Grasshopper gets goose-berry syrup for his cough.

       While Grasshopper Green was explaining, in a wheezing voice, interrupted by coughs, how it was that he had burst in on them so rudely, Mother Meadow-Mouse filled a plate with food for him; then, bustling over to a corner cupboard, she got down a little jug of homemade Goose-berry syrup, poured some of it into a pannikin and set this on the fire to heat, saying as she did so, "There's nothing like warmed Gooseberry syrup to break up a cough." 
       Father Meadow-Mouse would every now and then blow his nose and exclaim, "Well, singe my whiskers and twist my tail!" just to express his sympathy. 
       Of course the little Meadow-Mouse children looked on with the greatest interest. When they saw their mother's treasured Gooseberry juice brought out they all pretended to have coughs, and Mother Meadow-Mouse good-naturedly gave them each a few drops. 
       When famished Grasshopper Green had eaten all he could-which, of course, seemed like very little to the big, hearty Meadow-Mice and when he had drunk the delicious Gooseberry juice, he sank back in the comfortable chair with a contented sigh. 
       Just think how heavenly it must have seemed to him, after having been nearly frozen and starved to death, to be sitting cozily by a warm hearth after a good supper! Father Meadow-Mouse was helping Mother Meadow-Mouse to wash the supper dishes, which rattled in a very homelike way. Long-Tail, Sharp-Eyes, Pink- Ears, and Mouseykins had started droning their lessons for the next day.

Father and Mother Meadow-Mouse wash the dinner dishes.

       "What a wonderfully cheerful place this is," said Grasshopper Green to himself, drowsily. "What beautiful blue furniture-and what a fine red tablecloth-what delightful yellow curtains- and what a good motto hanging over the mantle! 'Do-unto-others-as-you-would-have-them-do-unto-you.'''
       Then Grasshopper Green went fast asleep in the chair.
       Father Meadow-Mouse carried him into the children's room, where there was an old cradle which was about the right size for him, for you see a grown-up Grasshopper is not much bigger than a baby mouse.
       Good Father Meadow-Mouse then covered him up carefully with the very warmest blanket from his own bed. 

Father Meadow Mouse tucks grasshopper into bed.

You are on page 1, go to page 2 and then page 3

Back to Mouse Hole.

Saturday, December 14, 2024

Miniature Mouse Cider House

       This miniature cider house or cider shack was built by my daughter to put into a larger seasonal display. She made it very quickly in my opinion: she wiped it together inside of an hour! Later she added the mice and a few more details that I talk about at the bottom of this post.

Finished cider shack minus the mice.

Supply List:

  • decorative fall or harvest themed papers + print of wooden plank flooring
  • Sculpey for mini pumpkins
  • white card stock for signs, basket of apples and award
  • recycled lid for framed print
  • straw scraps for loft
  • corrugated cardboard for faux "metal roof"
  • tray of watercolors
  • Mod Podge
  • small cardboard box for the tiny pub
  • two spools for the table + scrap cardboard for the top
  • scrap fabric for table linen
  • tiny mugs for the cider (purchased)
  • acrylic paints for the signs and roof details

Step-by-Step Instructions: 

  1. Select and shape the roof of a shallow box. This one has an arched shape. The faux corrugated metal is actually made from a well defined interior corrugated cardboard insert. It was painted with additional shades of brown to make it look even more extreme. 
  2. Next the interior walls and floors with decoupaged with decorative papers. The outside side walls of the shack were already decorated with the apple print that you see in the photo below.
  3. Then the back oval window with glued in mullion was cut out and painted. 
  4. A small simple print of flowers was cut from scrap paper and glued inside of a shallow lid to make it look framed. This was then glued to a side wall for further decoration.
  5. My daughter then made little signs for the mouse cider house, one with a menu another for the outside of the display labeling what it was intended to represent.
  6. She then used her watercolors to paint a basket of apples for the attic storage room. 
  7. She sculpted the 3 dimensional pumpkins from Sculpey oven-bake clay and followed the directions for baking it posted on the package. 
  8. She then painted the pumpkins orange and their stems green. Let these dry and brushed on Mod Podge to seal them.
  9. She glued two large wooden spools to the bottom of a table top cut from cardboard. 
  10. Afterwards she cut a scrap of plaid fabric for the tablecloth and set the table using store bought mugs.
  11. Lastly, she made the 1rst place award ribbon for best squeezed cider and hung it above the table with mugs.
Left, the window cut out from the back and given a cross shaped mullion. Center, the side of the
original recycled box had this apple print on it. Right, just a few details make for a cozy shack for
 tiny mouse dolls to eat and drink the delights of the Fall seasonal harvest!

One month later . . .

Left, the barrel of "popcorn", the donuts and caramel apple, an old-fashioned apple press and
finally the cotton batting mouse were later added to the miniature display items. Center see all
of the things together. Right, details of her little cotton batting mouse with overalls and freckles.

Sunday, May 26, 2024

A Day In A Colonial Home

PREFACE: The average home today has conveniences to meet the demands of comfortable living. The heating and lighting are good. In nearly every home may be found a living room where the family assembles for rest and recreation. Here they read, sew, chat, and discuss the news. Similar scenes occurred in the colonial days, but in quite a different room. The kitchen took the place of our modern living room. The life of the colonists centered in it, for in the kitchen was the fireplace, often the one source of heat in the whole house. Its warmth and cheer and its use as a place for cooking made it the heart of the home. Here it was that the family interests and activities were centered; all the family group collected here to share the joys and sorrows of life.

HOW THE STORY CAME TO BE WRITTEN: A father came into the Newark Museum to ask help of the educational adviser.
       "I cannot get my children interested in their ancestors," said he. "They don't feel any pride in being descended from a lady who came over in the Mayflower. They say, "Oh, Charlie's uncle came over in a private yacht, and Mike's brother is going over in an airplane.'' What shall I do? If we were living at the old homestead, I could show them the hole in the shutter through which the native shot their great-uncle, and the oven by the fireside where their great-grandmother cooked for the continental soldiers, and the wedding dress of their grandmother. But the old place was sold, and everything is scattered."
       "Bring your children to the Museum," said the educational adviser. "We will show them colonial costumes and candle-molds and Native American arrows."
      "I'll try it," said the father, "but it won't be the same."
       Then came a teacher.
       "I wish," said she, "that I could make history alive to my pupils. They don't care how many men were killed in the battle of Monmouth, or what the date was when Washington crossed the Delaware."
       "We will send you some dolls in colonial costume and an old wool-carder," said the educational adviser.
       "Thank you," said the teacher. "Of course, those things will be better than nothing." 
       It was this need to see the real things that caused the Museum to build in its big hall at the top of the Newark Library a colonial kitchen, and fill it with colonial furnishings. Then the students from the Normal School dressed up in colonial clothes and went to work in the kitchen, spinning, making candles, and sewing carpet rags, and explaining these things to the children who flocked in to visit them.
       Next Miss Prescott began to play with the children who flocked there, and then the Andrews children of this story were born.
       The six or eight thousand children who were taken by their teachers to see this kitchen during the ten weeks that it stood there, many of whom then took their parents to see it, will perhaps read this story about the labors, and the play, and the love-making of Mary Jane, with interest.
       Any group of manual training boys and domestic art girls can put up such a kitchen, dress the characters, and act out such a story, and in many American neighborhoods they can borrow real things, for their stage properties.
       Of course, the story was not written to stimulate handwork or theatricals. Nor was it written to Americanize, or re-Americanize anybody. But simple stories without ingenuity of plot or striking incident have always been told by parents and grandparents and maiden aunts to the delight of children. "Tell us what happened when Grandpa was a miller‚" "Tell us about when you went to school through the woods"; "Tell us how the bear frightened Great-Aunt." These are the demands of children of all nations. The peculiarity of our situation is that so many of our children are step-children, half-children, adopted children. It is a mercy that there is an inheritance not only of blood, but of memories, of ideas, and of hopes.
       If this story stimulates emulation of the real virtues of our forefathers, who founded the country, and hence leads to real patriotism, it will have achieved the desire in the hearts of the authors and publishers. 

A Day in a Colonial Home

       Mary Jane awoke, startled. Had she overslept and not heeded her father's call? She jumped out of bed on to the strip of rag carpet laid on the cold floor. The chill of the early May morning made her shiver, and, with motherly care, she turned and straightened the patchwork quilt on her two sisters, mischievous Abigail and gentle little Dorothy, who were sleeping warmly in their feather bed. The world was a-quiver with life and sound. Mary Jane looked anxiously through the small-paned window. Surely, Providence would grant a pleasant day for the last of the housecleaning! Her mother was ill with the new baby brother and the kitchen must be cleaned before she was about again. It was not easy to do the work as well as her mother would have done it, but a bright, sunshiny day would help.
       The sun was just rising and a cool, northwest breeze was blowing the mist from the pond and gully. The sunlight sparkled on the pond which lay across the foot of the field and the breeze blew it into dark blue ripples. Mary Jane dreamed a minute. John Lewis must be in port, she thought, and perhaps he would be home to-day. His father's whaler, the Breezy Belle , had reached Gloucester the first of the week. If she planned well and hurried the work she might be able to go down to Jenny Lewis's in the afternoon to see her new dresses. Jenny Lewis was John's sister, and she had more pretty clothes than any girl in town. It would be a welcome change to visit her before supper. The past week of housecleaning had been a busy one, for the girls had cleaned the dooryard and the entry as well as the back room and the loft bedroom. Their mother, before her illness, had cleaned and aired her best front room and put back in their places the few pieces of furniture which stood in this cold and little-used room.
Figure 1. Well and Well-Sweep.
       The well-sweep creaked in the breeze, and a whiff of the smoke of the kitchen fire, pouring out of the chimney, blew up the stairway. Mary Jane straightened her simple gray dress, folding a fresh white kerchief across her breast. The neighbors called her smart and comely. She was sixteen, and tall and strong, the oldest of eight children. Her brothers and sisters knew her to be gentle as well as firm and just. They never shirked Mary Jane's orders, but they carried to her their bruised toes and cut fingers, the stitches dropped in their knitting, the knots tied in their patchwork. She bound up their hurts and set them to work again.
       "Daughter," called her father from the foot of the stairs, "the day comes on apace, and it promises a clear sky for your cleaning. Grandmother is tending your mother and the new babe, but John and I will need the porridge hot when we come back from foddering."
       Mary Jane answered her father gravely and picked up the candle to take with her to the kitchen. She called the older of her sisters. The three all slept under the low ceilings in the upstairs chamber. "Come Abigail! You are in truth a sleepyhead. Come! Everything's awake, and we have much to do! Father has called and indeed you must hurry."
Figure 2. Candlesticks. 
       In the kitchen a glowing bed of red-hot coals burned on the hearth, streaks of sunlight glanced through the eastern windows and touched the snowy, coarse cloth on the large dinner-table. Soft reflections shone from the pewter porringers hanging on the dresser; a sunbeam flecked with bright light the brass candlestick which Mary Jane set near its mate on the mantel over the hearth. In the south windows red geraniums blossomed and there was an atmosphere of homely cheer and comfort in the room. All winter, the family had gathered in the kitchen and, in its warm cosiness, Mary Jane had spun, darned mittens and knit stockings. She loved the kitchen, and she worked there happily and energetically, putting into her tasks that same heartfelt devotion to duty that her great-grandfather had brought across the sea to the Massachusetts colony more than a hundred years before.
       Her mother called quietly from the nearby bedroom, and Mary Jane tiptoed in. The baby was asleep and the sight of him in his helplessness and of her mother, always so strong and active, lying now so quiet and helpless at the beginning of a busy day, stirred her strangely. She bent awkwardly and kissed them, and blushed as she straightened up. Kisses were rare in her home, and she was surprised at herself. Her grandmother came in, and a commotion from the kitchen warned her that the boys were awake. Her three younger brothers, steady Thomas, and the twins, Asa and George, slept in the turn-down bed in the corner of the kitchen. They tumbled out and helped and punched each other into their clothes.
       "No shoes and stockings to-day, boys," Mary Jane called. "Housecleaning time, and shoes have barely lasted through the frost."
       Going to the table in the corner, she poured water into the wash basin. She washed her face and hands in the cold water, newly drawn from the well, gasping with the shock of its coldness, and rubbed her face briskly with the linen towel which hung over a roller on the door.
       Suddenly the back entry door swung open, and roly-poly Sam Dodd came in, swinging an iron pot.
        "Good-morrow, neighbors! Can you lend us a coal? As the weather grows milder I fear we tend our fire none too carefully."
       "Did you know John Lewis had come home?" he called to Mary Jane. "Some of us stopped to see him last night and Jenny came out and two or three of the neighbors. Mother says it is ungodly the way Cap'n Lewis dresses Jenny. "Fine feathers don't make fine birds," she says, and Jenny doesn't work enough to pay the Cap'n. She's a fair gad-about. He toils mightily to get the whale oil to buy her
gowns. John seems real pleased to be home, Mary Jane. He asked where you were."
       Grandmother came into the kitchen as Sam started out with his borrowed fire.
Figure 3. Porringer or Shallow Bowl. 
       "Pray tell thy mother, Sam, that the candles she helped us to make last fall are lasting well. We have treasured the choice green bayberry candles. Your mother will remember the day she helped me pick the bayberries for them. Now we do not need so much candle light, as the days grow longer. Thank her kindly for the bowl of rich soup she sent Daughter Andrews. Daughter will soon be up and about. Our new babe is six days old and strong and lusty. Hear how he cries." 
        Sam grinned and bore off his coals fallen from the burning sticks; while Grandmother took the bowl of porridge in to her daughter. 
Figure 4. Cast-Iron Skillet.
       Drawing the settles up to the table Mary Jane placed her father's chair at one end and her mother's at the other for Grandmother. Abigail and Dorothy seized the small brothers and sisters and scrubbed them clean. Whereupon the children took their porringers and wooden bowls from the dresser and stood in their places behind the settles. Abigail strained into a pail the warm, frothy milk which John, the oldest brother, had brought in, and Dorothy filled the large pewter tankard with cool milk from the cellar way. Mary Jane bustled about. She dished up from the steaming kettle on the hearth the corn meal mush, or hasty pudding, and added a large, thin Johnny cake, which she had browned in the skillet.
       The children folded their hands and bowed their heads. Grandmother had returned to the table. Father leaned over the high back of his chair and asked the Heavenly Father's blessing on home and family and sought guidance in the tasks of the day. 
Figure 5. Tin Kitchen or Roaster. 
         Mary Jane admired her father more than anyone else in the world. Wasn't he always right? She wandered. This morning while she sat with bowed head she asked herself, wistfully, if her father ever found it hard to decide between pleasure and duty. What would he say if he knew how much she wanted to see Jenny Lewis's new clothes? Would he think her frivolous? As she raised her eyes, she found her father looking quietly at her. Somehow, she seemed to feel as if he understood her better than she did herself and she sat up straight and proud because he was her father. She felt certain that he would choose his duty however hard he found it.
       As Mary Jane ate her mush and milk, she planned her day and thought occasionally of Jenny Lewis. In Jenny's home they used a tin kitchen, or roaster, for their goose. But Mary Jane's family were poor, and they used a home-made device for roasting their goose. To a string hung in the fireplace Mary Jane would tie the goose's leg and Asa would sit in front of the fire and twist the string, so that the goose might become evenly browned. Jenny's mother used a plate-warmer, made with one side open to the heat, but Mary Jane would dip her plates into a kettle of hot water and never envy her friends their extra comforts and luxuries. However, Mary Jane did have a lively interest in new things and pretty clothes, and she said to herself that she would get through her work and have an hour or two before supper to visit Jenny whether or no.
Figure 6. Plate-Warmer
       Her father had set the churn near the hearth and the cream was warm enough for Thomas to beat. The brick oven was well heated, and she could bake apple pies, using the last of the dried apples. George should take down the few strings of apples which were left hanging on the kitchen rafters, and Dorothy should wash them at the well. It would not take long for Dorothy to clear away the dishes and fold the table-cloth and napkins. The family had few dishes and most of these were pewter bowls and porringers. A few blue dishes of Grandmother's, that she had brought from England, were left. These were used only on rare occasions. Mary Jane would wash them herself. The silver spoons and Mother's white-handled knives must be scoured with care. Abigail should attend to them and the pewter and the tin-lined copper kettles. Abigail liked to make them shine and Mary Jane knew that when one's heart is in a task the work goes quickly. There was always wool to card, and the small boys might do this in odd moments. When the fireplace was cleaned out, one of the boys must empty all the ashes into the leach barrel. Through the winter the family had saved the ashes and all grease from cooking and butchering and, in the fall, Mother would make soft soap. Mary Jane's mother and grandmother always had good luck with their soft soap, and in the clear jelly-like substance there remained little trace of the rancid grease and strong lye from which it had been made.
       The simple but nourishing breakfast was soon over. Father spoke occasionally to John about the work of the day. "The flax patch must be harrowed and sowed and the sods turned for the corn," he said.
       "This is a likely drying day, John; the wind and sun will draw the dampness from the earth, and take the dust from your rugs, too, Daughter," he added, as he rose and picked up his broad, soft hat.
       "Remember, children, that your mother has taught you to work quickly and with care. Show that you have learned your lesson well. Boys, stand ready to handle the dasher, or turn the roast. Come, John."
Figure 7. Wool Spinning-Wheel
       Breakfast finished, all became bustle and stir. Grandmother slipped briskly to her large, wool spinning-wheel. She was white-haired and full of years, but still she plied her task of spinning energetically and skilfully. She had learned it long before in a shire of England where wool was raised and made into cloth. Grandmother was graceful and dignified in carriage; for many years of her life she had walked back and forth at her wheel, lightly poised and alert. She lifted her spinning-wheel, and, with awkward help from Thomas, carried it into Mother Andrew's room.
       "I must needs be out of thy way, Mary Jane, and will spin in thy mother's room today."
Figure 8. A Cradle
       But Grandmother soon returned, holding the baby in the crook of her left arm. She seated herself near the fire and unwrapped many layers of soft woolen covers from little Samuel. Dipping her elbow into the basin of warm water at her side, she found it just right and bathed the baby quickly, wrapped him again in the folds of the flannel, and retied his little cap. She then put him in the cradle, and called Thomas to rock him to sleep.
       Mary Jane told her brothers and sisters what she expected of each of them before she pulled out her rolling-board and started to make pie-crust.
       Abigail banged the churn dasher up and down and thought eagerly of the pewter and brasses to be polished.
Figure 9. Wooden Churn
       "Thomas, methinks the wee child must be asleep. Stretch up to this churn dasher and prove yourself a dashing knave," she said. "Abigail, teach not to children such play on words," chided Mary Jane.
       Abigail frowned and said, "You were not always so proper in your speech, Mary Jane, before John Lewis came a-courting."
       Mary Jane, flushed and flustered, knocked her cap awry, and accidentally wiped a floury hand across her cheek.
       "Do you suppose that I shall be thus improved when someone comes a-courting me?"Abigail went on. "What do you think John Lewis may have made you? He has had time enough for many a turn of the hand. It is full three months since the whaler put out from Gloucester. Do you think that even a slow-witted fellow like your John may have speed in his fingers? Perchance he whittles faster than he talks?"
       "Abigail," Mary Jane interrupted, "the butter must have come. Run out to the well for fresh water. I will gather the butter while you are gone. Curb your saucy tongue, sister. Mistress Dodd is coming up the road with her pot of beans, and I would not have her hear your foolish gossip."
       "John wants the flint-lock, Mary Jane. Pass it down to me quickly. Oh hurry, kindly," Abigail called as she tumbled in at the doorway. The little boys followed close at her heels. "The dog has dug out a woodchuck in the stone wall, near the flax patch, and John thinks he can pot him. Do hasten, Mary Jane! Your fingers were not always thumbs."
Figure 10. Flint-Lock gun and pistol

       The gun was loaded, for when it was wanted it was wanted quickly, and loading was no quick matter. Throwing it over her shoulder as John would have done, Abigail ran from the house.
Figure 11. Warming Pan
       Dorothy could not bear to have killed even a woodchuck who ate the flax plants. Mary Jane knew how the child loved all dumb creatures, and she sent her out into the south door-yard, patchwork in hand. Dorothy sat down on the door-step and sewed. She was setting patchwork blocks for Mary Jane's new quilt. It was a Job's Trouble pattern and there were in it many hexagonal blocks of real India chintz, and French calicoes that Jenny Lewis had given Mary Jane. Dorothy sewed over and over with painstakingly small stitches. But the spring day enticed her, and she stole away from her stint. She poked with a stick among the roots and dried leaves in the garden border, and thought eagerly of the colors and sweet odors soon to awaken there: hollyhocks and purple stocks, candytuft and pinks, Sweet William, by the door-step, and love-lies-a-bleeding, Queen Margarets, larkspur, tiger lilies and bouncing-bet, and sunflowers to be planted here and there with corn. Dorothy played only a few minutes, for conscience urged her to pick up the unfinished square of patchwork, and she soon went back into the house. Mary Jane bade her show Mistress Dodd into their mother's room, for her own arms were deep in the butter-bowl.
       After Abigail had helped dig out the woodchuck, she brought in the two pails of clear rinsing water for the butter, and hastened to start her own task of the day. The pewter and copper should be made to shine as never before. She arranged on the far end of the dinner-table, pewter porringers, solid silver spoons, the pewter tankard and one large pewter plate and several small ones, the long-handled brass warming pan, two tall brass candlesticks and the snuffers from the mantel. She even removed the flint-lock pistols from their holsters beneath the mantel. Their brass mountings were dull and lustreless. She looked longingly at the brass clasps of Father's large Bible. When Mary Jane was elsewhere it might be possible to make them shine as they should. "You have a lively way, Abigail, when your interest is taken. If we hasten, we may have the kitchen ordered by dinner-time."

Figure 12. Snuffers
"Who is this?" Abigail exclaimed.
       Mary Jane looked up in consternation. Her father was bringing in two men; one was the minister and the other a stranger. She could hear them wiping their boots on the old rug on the porch. Abigail sprang helpfully forward to gather up and conceal her cleaning rags, and in doing so overturned the churn, half full of buttermilk! Mary Jane heard the crash, and saw the door open. Her father stepped right into the rushing stream of buttermilk before he saw there was an accident, and Mary Jane wondered stupidly why she had never noticed before how much the floor sloped toward the entry. The buttermilk ran over her father's shoes.
       This is a sad state of affairs, Daughter,"her father said with grave reproof, "but we will go around by the other door. The minister has called to see your mother, and this good man, the indigo peddler, needs some breakfast. He has traveled far this morning. Attend to his needs and I doubt not he will
show his gratitude in some way that will help you."
       Mary Jane looked ruefully at the confusion, but gratefully to her father for his forbearance. Abigail had meant well, and accidents would happen. Even if it was housecleaning time, the peddler must be fed. Father believed that all hungry people should be treated kindly. "Better to feed a dozen ungracious ones," he said, "than to turn away one deserving and needy." Mary Jane directed Abigail to bring out cold porridge and salt fish and milk for the peddler, while she mopped up the floor.
       As Mistress Dodd finished her call and came out of their mother's room, Mary Jane looked up from the floor and asked her if she would not take home a pat of new butter.
       "Twill not come amiss with hot Johnny cake, Mistress Dodd," she said, as she went on with her mopping.
       "Yes, indeed, I will be glad to have it, Mary Jane, and thank you, too. What a bother to lose the good buttermilk," she added, looking at the floor. Then she slyly pinched Mary Jane's white arm.
       "John Lewis came home last night, and they say he looks fine and hearty, Mary Jane. Think you he has learned to talk and ask questions? Have you an answer ready for him? Do not turn away your head, child, I mean naught by these bantering words. Later, I will send Sam for our baked beans. Thank you for letting us use your oven. Good-day, all."
       Mary Jane finished cleaning up the floor and scattered the children who had gathered in the kitchen. Strangers were an event, and the young ones looked at the peddler eagerly and intently. The old man sat down and drew toward him the bowl of porridge, first taking a long draught of the buttermilk near at hand. Looking up from her task, Mary Jane reproved Dorothy for staring.

Figure 13. Reel for Winding Thread
       "Take this flagon of buttermilk up to the flax patch. We saved this much in the churn.'Tis ten o'clock and Father and John must be hungry. The drink will help them through the next hour."
       Turning to Abigail, she suggested that she put out of doors the rocking-chair and small table. The Bible and work-basket and mother's reel might go into mother's room. Perhaps the peddler would help her move the settles out on the grass. Mary Jane herself knelt down on the hearth to take up the ashes.
       The peddler jumped up. "Willing hands make light work, Mistress Mary, and out go the tables and the chairs. Back again! and now, my dears, we are ready for the old settles. Came from the sturdy land of England, these did."
       Mary Jane frowned and settled her cap with dignity. "I like not too much talk. If we save our breath it will help in the lifting. Be careful of the door, please, I would not have the wood scarred."
       "Clear the ways, my hearties," the peddler called, not seeming to be disturbed by Mary Jane's dignified words, "I'm the man for that job. Up you get, Mistress Mary, and down goes Jake, the indigo peddler. I can holystone a deck, why not brush up the ashes?"
       Mary Jane looked doubtfully at her helper, but she soon admitted that he used the shovel and the turkey wing with a neat hand. Father said that it was often more generous to accept help than to give it, and so thinking, she turned to other work.

Figure 14. Kettle

       Directing Dorothy to take one kettle and Abigail the other, Mary Jane started them to cleaning the woodwork. There was plenty of hot water in the big pot which had been hanging on the crane, and there were soft soap and stout cloths. The girls were careful not to waste the soap, but they hunted for every speck and streak of dirt. Having answered a call from her mother, Mary Jane came back to the kitchen, bright-eyed, but demure. Mother had said that she wished Abigail to wash up the bricks in the fireplace, and Mary Jane would clean the windows. Master Jake had helped them generously, but they could finish up the rest of the work alone, their mother thought.       
Figure 15. Swinging Crane
       "Just as the Mistress says. I'll be off. Indigo has gone a-begging this morning, but perhaps I can sell some cochineal up the road. Good-day and the Lord bless ye!" So saying the old man bent to his pack and trudged away.
       Abigail stood and pondered. She was mischieviously interested in the change of plan. Mary Jane generally washed out the fireplace.
       "What does it mean, Dorothy? Dost think John Lewis would notice if Mary Jane's hands were smutted and grimy? '
       "Methinks 'tis best for us to stop talking and get to our work. Mother would have Mary Jane make a good impression. Mary Jane is comely, and John Lewis is not a-courting us." Dorothy's reproof was gently made, and she smiled at Abigail.
       The three sisters worked steadily and swiftly. Mary Jane appeared not to hear the whispering of the younger girls. She polished the windows, and the warm sunshine filled the room. She soon relieved Dorothy of further cleaning, and sent her into the yard under the hickory tree to sew a long seam. The child fastened her work with a sewing-bird to a little table, and sewed industriously.
       John came in just then, and took down the shoemaker's last. He wanted to get out an ugly nail from his mother's shoe. She would soon be up again. Mary Jane asked him if he would take the children out to hunt for hens' nests after he had finished. She hoped to have a custard for supper.
       A little later her father followed John in from the flax patch, and the family gathered for dinner, eating cold boiled salmon and the dried-apple pie which Mary Jane had hurriedly made in the morning. These, with milk and Johnny cake, soon satisfied the hungry workers and each was back at his task.
Figure 16, sewing-bird
       Father and John predicted a thunder shower in the late afternoon, and Mary Jane looked anxiously at the clouds. Perhaps the shower would go round? She was not much tired, she thought, and the work, in spite of accidents, was going well. It would be too hard if she finished the kitchen in time and then had to give up her visit to Jenny because of a thunder-shower. But after dinner the work went more slowly. It seemed as if she could not get things all finished and the kitchen looking just right. She was more tired than she had realized. But her determination to get away for a little time before supper grew with her weariness. She worked desperately to put the finishing touches on the room, and, after a while, it suited her. 
       Abigail and Dorothy had gone out with John and the little boys to hunt for eggs, before they washed and changed their dresses. Mary Jane's mother and the little baby brother were sleeping and her grandmother's spinning-wheel made the only sound in the afternoon's stillness. The room darkened with the coming storm. The leaves of the red geraniums moved in the rising wind, and the white, sash curtains blew out into the room. Mary Jane picked a dried leaf out of the basket of freshly laundered caps and straightened the blue calico cushion in the rocking chair. She opened the door of the brick oven where Mrs. Dodd's beans and their own had been baking since morning. The beans were baked perfectly in the round, brown pots, and their fragrant, appetizing odor filled the room. Looking about, before she went upstairs, Mary Jane felt that her mother would be satisfied with the appearance of the kitchen. The brass and irons in the fireplace and the shovel and tongs glowed from Abigail's honest rubbing. The black pots and copper kettles had been cleaned inside and out and hooked on to the swinging frame. The waffle-irons and toaster hung on the side of the fireplace and the gridiron stood on its three slender legs beside the hearth. A small fire burned red on the hearth and a gentle cloud of steam rose from the bubbling kettle. The brass warming-pan made a blob of light against the dull red bricks.
Figure 17. andirons or fire-dogs

       The dresser was white from its recent scrubbing and the pewter on it shone brightly. Grandmother's blue plates and saucers had been rearranged on the plate rail and the spoons and white-handled knives laid back in the mahogany boxes on the dresser. John had whittled and smoothed those boxes for his mother in the winter evenings. The Bible, and the New England Primer and Father's horned spectacles lay on the small table in the corner, and the cradle, with its new pink and white checked cover, stood near the fireplace. When Mother got up, the baby would lie in that all day. The floor looked nice and clean. It had been freshly sanded and the braided rugs laid carefully in their usual places before the hearth and doorway. The old gray cat had stretched himself near the fireplace, and his friend, the dog, slept beside him. 
Figure 18. Toasting-Rack

Figure 19. A Gridiron
       Mary Jane noticed that the wind had blown awry Dorothy's framed sampler which hung on the wall. She straightened it and read again the words: "Honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Dorothy Ward Andrews." She read the words soberly, and thought of her own good father. Picking up her clean cap and a basin of water, she started upstairs. A sudden clap of thunder shook the house and, with the first sprinkle of rain, the kitchen door blew open and Jenny Lewis dashed in.
       "Just in time, Mary Jane! I am glad you are through with your work! I have come to take you home to supper as soon as this shower blows over. John told me to tell you he would bring you home this evening. He has something pretty for you. I do not know what it is, but he made it and he feels sure that you will like it. You are too good, Mary Jane! I told John that you were kinder than I, but perhaps you would not like his homemade gift. I am very sure that I should not prefer it unless it were finer than you could buy in the shops." So talking on, Jenny pushed Mary Jane through the stairway door.
       The storm drove her father out of the flax patch, and in a few minutes, he hastened into the warmth of the kitchen. His wife called from the inner room and told him that Jenny Lewis had come for Mary Jane and she hoped he would allow the girl to go down to Cap'n Lewis's for the evening. There could be no harm, the mother said, in Mary Jane having well-to-do friends. John Lewis was a sober, industrious youth, even though his sister Jenny was rather flighty. She would like to have Mary
Jane go more often to visit in Jenny's home. As the mother made her ambitious little plans, the girls came into the kitchen. Mary Jane glanced shyly at her father. She was wearing her best summer dress.
Figure 20. Knife-Tray

       "Jenny has asked me down to her house for supper, Father. The storm has passed around, and the sun is coming out. I should like to go. Everything is ready to put on the table for children. Jenny says she and John will walk a piece with me when I come home."
       "Why, Mary Jane Andrews, I never said anything of the sort!" Jenny exclaimed, "John sent word he wanted to bring you home."
       Mary Jane's father looked at her searchingly and gravely. Mary Jane had not meant to tell a fib but she was always bashful when she spoke of John Lewis. Could there be a smile in her father's eye? She thought not. She dropped her own eyes and waited. In a minute her father spoke:
      "Better not go out to-night, Daughter. Your mother will be up in a day or two, and then there will be more freedom for you. Responsibility will not hurt any lass and a small disappointment is better than a pleasure taken at the wrong time."
       "Tell John," her father added as he turned to Jenny, "that we shall be glad to see him when he calls up here. I hear that your father has made another successful trip. It is a hard and dangerous life he lives on the sea. May the Lord prosper him." Then Mary Jane's father went out.
Figure 21. spectacles and Bible
       Jenny flung herself into the rocker and spoke angrily to Mary Jane. "I am glad indeed that my father is not a cross-patch! What does your father think? Just because he is one of the elders in the church must his daughter have no pleasure? He does not give you any gay dresses. Even your best dress is just this blue one with a white kerchief. It is not fair, and now he will spoil our little pleasure. I believe he likes to forbid you to do things, just because he knows you will obey. Why do you? Come with me and show your father you have a right to a few minutes in the day! Perhaps he does not approve of me! Well, I do not care. Come, Mary Jane. Come down and see my new dresses. Your father said, "Better not go out to-night‚" he did not forbid you to go. You can tell him that when you come back. Oh, what is the use of coaxing! You look just as stubborn as your father. Good-by, I am going home!"
Figure 22. Wheel for Spinning Flax
       "Come back here, Jenny Lewis!" Mary Jane called after her. "I am glad I look like my father! He has a perfect right to keep me at home if he wants to. Folks feel sorry because your father has to work so hard and spend so much of his money on clothes for you. I like pretty clothes too, but if my father thinks I am putting too much thought on myself, he tells me so. He shows me my duty."
       Mary Jane pulled her flax-wheel toward her and whirled the wheel rapidly. "My father believes I will grow in grace and patience for big sorrows and disappointments if I bear little ones cheerfully. What kind of practice are you getting, Jenny Lewis? It is wicked to talk about a father as you have talked about mine. I am not disappointed one bit about not going to your house. I like my homespun dresses and I can make linen as fine as you get in your dresses from England. When I get the kitchen cleaned and the floor sanded and the white curtains in place I feel happy. It is my work and it pleases my mother and I like to do it. Father does not say much about our work, because he expects us to do it well. He knows work is good for us. But what are you doing, Jenny? All you think about is pretty dresses and looking gay. I am glad Father thought I was needed here at suppertime‚ but I will come down to your house some other night," Mary Jane said more gently.
       "Perhaps you are right, Mary Jane, but you need not get so cross about it. I may be lazy, I suppose, but I do not see what there is about work that makes you like to do it, and in disappointment, even a little one, that makes you glad to bear it."
Figure 25. Spider or Skillet with Bail
       "Jenny, I cannot explain. I like to cook and clean and spin and knit. That's the way I feel. It isn't hard. I don't mean to be conceited or think myself better than other people, but somehow when my father is strictest with me something inside of me likes it. Here comes Dorothy with a bunch of pink and white arbutus. It grows late up in the woods. How pretty it is! Our Pilgrim grandmothers must have been glad to see it peeping up from the snow after their long, hard winters. Who is this coming in with the boys? Why, it is your brother John! Jenny, will you and John stay to supper with us?" Mary Jane turned to her friend eagerly.
       "Yes, Mary Jane, and I will help you with the dishes and, after supper, John shall tell us stories about his voyage. It is just as well we were disappointed! I will try to be a more dutiful daughter, Mary Jane. I guess Father and Mother like to have me visit you. They chide me for my heedless ways."
       The girls and boys came trooping in together and Mary Jane pushed aside her flax- wheel and stirred the embers on the hearth, laying on fresh sticks. John Lewis met her with awkward shyness and dropping a bulky package on the chair beside her said, "Open it later, Mary Jane. It is for you. I whittled it out in spare minutes aboard the Breezy Belle."
       Jenny called across the room. "Hurry up, John Lewis, and all of you boys wash while we help Mary Jane dish up the beans. It is supper time, and she has asked you and me to stay. Here is Sam Dodd, Mary Jane."
       ''Oh yes, he wants his mother's beans. They are the ones in the back of the oven, Jenny. Please help him."
       "We shall be glad to help you while your oven is being repaired, Sam. Tell your mother to send in anything she wants to have baked."
       "Do open the door for him, John. It would be a pity for him to drop the beans and spoil his mother's supper."
       So, laughing and hurrying, Mary Jane and her helpers soon had on the table their supper of baked beans and brown bread, custards and cool drinks of milk. After supper, Father asked his family and the company to gather for prayers at once for he had an errand up the road and wished to get back early. The planting and housecleaning days were hard ones and he knew that his folks needed to get to bed in good season if they wanted to do good work the following day. 
 Figure 23. Powder-Horn
       Mary Jane placed a candle on the table near the Bible and the children drew up their stools and Father's chair. Father read the twenty- third psalm and knelt to pray. He thanked the Lord for the blessings of the day, the fair weather and plentiful food and his helpful sons and daughters. He prayed that all young souls, untried in the furnace of life, should lean on the Lord and strive to do their duty nobly as He would show it to them. He prayed earnestly and rose from his knees weary but heartened. The young folks went gravely about the task of clearing away the dishes. But when Father Andrews departed, their solemnity gave place to mirth and jolly fun. John raked open the coals and brought out a little popcorn that had lasted through the winter. Thomas agreed to pop it for them, and John took down his powder-horn. He wanted to finish whittling the design on it. Dorothy coaxed Jenny down on the settle to tell about her visit in Boston and Mary Jane brought out a skein of soft, white wool.
       "Perhaps you will hold this for me, John Lewis? I am going to knit a hood for the new babe Samuel, but the wool must first be wound in a ball."
       "No, Mary Jane, there is a better way to hold that worsted than on a man's outstretched arms. Open the package I brought you and look within."
Figure 24. Swift for Winding Yarn
       Mary Jane untied the hempen cord fastened about the bundle John had brought in and the boys and girls gathered near, with jest and laughing glances. So John Lewis had made their sister something! Well, he always looked as if he liked her, but this was proof indeed. What could it be, so bulky and strange looking? Would Mary Jane never get it out? She handled the string slowly (almost lovingly, John Lewis hoped). But at last the covers fell off on her lap, and she held out a dainty and beautifully polished swift. John took it from her, and, placing it on the table, dropped over the outspread spokes, her skein of white worsted. He quickly found the end of the skein, and placing it gently in Mary Jane's hand, bade her wind the ball. As the reel turned slowly and Mary Jane's ball grew large and soft, she lifted her eyes gratefully to John Lewis. The others had withdrawn to the settles and fireplace and John made bold to whisper as he leaned across the corner of the table;  "Mary Jane, will you walk out with me on the Sabbath? Twill be a long six months before we put to sea again, and, perhaps, in that time you may come to like a slow fellow like me. Maybe I can make you a chest to put your caps and linens in while I am home. That would make you think of me when you put things in it after I am gone. Will you walk with me, Mary Jane?"
       Mary Jane twirled the reel and examined the cunningly wrought initials of her name on the side and flushed a lovely color when she discovered J. L. John Lewis just below them. She gazed laughingly at John and nodded her head, but her shy whisper left him speechless: "I do not think you are a slow fellow, John, and I like you now. I have liked you a long time! I have a chest and it is half full of fine linen. I have been busy."
       "Mary Jane, did you think of me as you spun the linen and dyed the wool?"
       Mary Jane nodded again and picked up her knitting-needles. Her father came in and John jumped to his feet.
       ''Elder Andrews, may I have Mary Jane for my wife? She likes me, she says, and we need not wait? Will you let us have the banns published this Sabbath approaching? I am twenty, sir, and Mary Jane is sixteen. That is only a year younger than my father and mother were when they married and came to the colony."
       "Daughter, is this your wish?" her father asked.
       A solemn hush fell on the group in the kitchen. Grandmother stood in the doorway and gazed affectionately on the oldest daughter of their family. She knew the sterling worth of the girl John Lewis desired for his wife, and she knew that if these young people married, another home would be established in the colony which would be a power for righteousness and godly living.
       Mary Jane looked steadfastly at her father, and tucked her hand under John's arm as she answered: "Yes, Father."
       "Then God bless you both, my children, and may you believe all that is required in this world is for you to live justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."
       So saying, he walked quietly from the room. The brothers and sisters crowded about Mary Jane and John, and Jenny whispered as she put on her bonnet: "Mary Jane, I like your father."
       Mary Jane smiled gently. A peace and happiness had come into her heart that knew no words. She turned to John to say good-night. Her father's blessing shone from her loyal, brave eyes, and John Lewis knew that he was truly fortunate among men.

Hearth Kitchen at Wentworth House

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