n it. By an interesting coincidence he also, in his
eighty-fifth year, wrote his very last poem upon it. When the family
removed to Amesbury, in 1836, this desk was taken with them, but soon
after was replaced by a new one, and this went "out of commission." The
new desk was the one on which "Snow-Bound" was written, and this may
now be seen at Amesbury. When Mr. Whittier's niece was married, he gave
her this old desk, which she took to Portland, where it was thoroughly
repaired. When he visited Portland, he wrote many letters and some
poems on it. In the summer of 1891, as her uncle proposed to make his
home with his cousins, the Cartlands, in Newburyport, his niece had
this ancient desk sent there. Mr. Whittier was greatly pleased, upon
his arrival, to find in his room the heirloom which was hallowed by so
many associations connected not only with his ancestry, but with his
own early life. Nearly all of the literary work of his last year was
done upon this desk. To his niece he wrote:--

"I am writing at the old desk, which Gertrude has placed in my room,
but it seems difficult to imagine myself the boy who used to sit by it
and make rhymes. It is wonderfully rejuvenated, and is a handsome
piece of furniture. It was the desk of my great-grandfather, and seemed
to me a wretched old wreck when thee took it to Portland. I did not
suppose it could be made either useful or ornamental. I wrote my first
pamphlet on slavery, 'Justice and Expediency,' upon it, as well as a
great many rhymes which might as well have never been written. I am
glad that it has got a new lease of life."

[Illustration: KITCHEN IN BIRTHPLACE

Copyright, 1891, by A. A. Ordway]

The little room at the western end of the kitchen was "mother's room,"
its floor two steps higher than that of the larger room, for a singular
reason. In digging the cellar the pioneer found here a large boulder it
was inconvenient to remove, and wishing a milk room at this corner, he
was obliged to make its floor two steps higher than the rest of the
cellar. This inequality is reproduced in each story. In this little
room the bed is furnished with the blankets and linen woven by
Whittier's mother on the loom that used to stand in the open chamber.
Her initials "A. H." on some of the pieces show that they date back to
her life in Somersworth, N. H. On the wall of this room may be seen the
baby-clothes of Whittier's father, made by the grandmother who brought
the name of Gr