thin' in life was a disappointment to her, 'cept
David. Now if she could see this! Won't I rub it into the neighbours?
And my boys' wives!"

"I don't understand," said the bewildered Girl.

"'Course you don't, honey," explained the visitor. "It's like this: I
don't know anybody, man or woman, in these parts, that ain't rampagin'
for CHANGE. They ain't one of them that would live in a log cabin,
though they's not a house in twenty miles of here that fits its
surroundin's and looks so homelike as this. They run up big, fancy brick
and frame things, all turns and gables and gay as frosted picnic pie,
and work and slave to git these very carpets you say ain't healthy,
and the chairs you say you wouldn't give house room, an' they use their
grandmother's chany for bakin', scraps, and grease dishes, and hide it
if they's visitors. All of them strainin' after something they can't
afford, and that ain't healthy when they git it, because somebody else
is doin' the same thing. Mary Peters says she is afeared of her life in
their new steam wagon, and she says Andy gits so narvous runnin' it, he
jest keeps on a-jerkin' and drivin' all night, and she thinks he'll
soon go to smash himself, if the machine doesn't beat him. But they
are keepin' it up, because Graceston's is, and so it goes all over the
country. Now I call it a slap right in the face to have a Chicagy woman
come to the country to live and enjoy a log cabin, bare floors, and her
man's grandmother's dishes. If there ain't Marthy's old blue coverlid
also carefully spread on a splinter new sofy. Landy, I can't wait to get
to my son John's! He's got a woman that would take two coppers off the
collection plate while she was purtendin' to put on one, if she could,
and then spend them for a brass pin or a string of glass beads. Won't
her eyes bung when I tell her about this? She wanted my Peter Hartman
kiver for her ironin' board. Show me the rest!"

"This is the dining-room," said the Girl, leading the way.

Granny Moreland stepped in and sent her keen eyes ranging over the
floor, walls, and furnishings. She sank on a chair and said with a
chuckle, "Now you go on and tell me all about it, honey. Jest what
things are and why you fixed them, and how they are used."

The Girl did her best, and the old woman nodded in delighted approval.

"It's the purtiest thing I ever saw," she announced. "A minute ago, I'd
'a' said them blue walls back there, jest like October skies in Indi