ic economy, as they are to-day. Still they
were to be found, though it was rare, indeed, that they covered more
than the centre of the room. One of these great essentials, without
which no place can appear comfortable in a cold climate, was spread on
the floor of Mrs. Willoughby's parlour--a room that served for both
eating and as a sala, the Knight's Hall of the Hut, measuring twenty by
twenty-four feet--though in fact this carpet concealed exactly two-
thirds of the white clean plank. Then the chairs were massive and even
rich, while one might see his face in the dark mahogany of the tables.
There were cellarets--the captain being a connoisseur in wines--
bureaus, secretaries, beaufets, and other similar articles, that had
been collected in the course of twenty years' housekeeping, and
scattered at different posts, were collected, and brought hither by
means of sledges, and the facilities of the water-courses. Fashion had
little to do with furniture, in that simple age, when the son did not
hesitate to wear even the clothes of the father, years and years after
the tailor had taken leave of them. Massive old furniture, in
particular, lasted for generations, and our matron now saw many
articles that had belonged to her grandfather assembled beneath the
first roof that she could ever strictly call her own.

Mrs. Willoughby took a survey of the offices last. Here she found,
already established, the two Plinies, with Mari', the sister of the
elder Pliny, Bess, the wife of the younger, and Mony--alias Desdemona--
a collateral of the race, by ties and affinities that garter-king-at-
arms could not have traced genealogically; since he would have been
puzzled to say whether the woman was the cousin, or aunt, or step-
daughter of Mari', or all three. All the women were hard at work, Bess
singing in a voice that reached the adjoining forest. Mari'--this name
was pronounced with a strong emphasis on the last syllable, or like
Maria, without the final vowel--Mari' was the head of the kitchen, even
Pliny the elder standing in salutary dread of her authority; and her
orders to her brother and nephew were pouring forth, in an English that
was divided into three categories; the Anglo-Saxon, the Low Dutch, and
the Guinea dialect; a medley that rendered her discourse a droll
assemblage of the vulgar and the classical.

"Here, niggers," she cried, "why you don't jump about like Paus dance?
Ebbery t'ing want a hand, and some want a foot.