"Aunt Sarah," exclaimed Mary, "I"ve an original idea. This oval, marble-topped table has such strong, solid legs of black walnut, suppose we remove the marble slab and have a large, circular top made of wood at the planing mill? Wait; I"ll get my tape measure. About thirty-two inches in diameter will do. The new top we shall stain to match the walnut frame, and it could be easily fastened to the table with a couple of screws; and, after the marble top has been well scoured, we"ll use it in the kitchen as a bake board on which to roll out pie crust."
Her Aunt as usual acquiesced to all Mary"s suggestions.
"You"re a dear, Aunt Sarah!" exclaimed Mary, as she gave her a hug, "and I"ll embroider big, yellow daisies with brown centres of French knots on gray linen for a new table cover. Won"t they look just sweet?"
"Yes, Mary, and I"ll buy a large, new lamp with a pretty shade, as I feel sure your Uncle will like to sit here evenings to read his papers and farm journals."
"And don"t forget the Shriners" little magazine, _The Crescent_, which amuses him so greatly. Aunt Sarah, I do wish those stiff, starchy-looking, blue-white Nottingham lace curtains at the windows had grown yellow with age. They would be ever so much prettier and softer looking, and they are such a pretty, neat design, too."
"Oh!" replied her Aunt, "that may be easily remedied. I"ll just dip them into a little weak liquid coffee and that will give them a creamy tint, and take out the stiffness."
"Now," said Mary, "what shall we do with these stiff, ugly, haircloth-covered chairs and sofa?"
"Why," replied Aunt Sarah, "we shall buy cretonne or art cloth, in pretty shades of brown and tan or green, to harmonize with the wall paper, and make slip covers for them all. We could never think of dispensing with the sofa. It is a very important article of furniture in German households. The hostess usually gives the person of greatest distinction among her guests the place of honor beside her on the sofa."
"These chairs have such strong, well-made, mahogany frames it would be a pity not to use them. Now," continued Mary, "about the pictures on the wall. Can"t we consign them all to the attic? We might use some of the frames. I"ll contribute unframed copies of "The Angelus" and "The Gleaners," by Millet; and I think they would fit into these plain mahogany frames which contain the very old-fashioned set of pictures named respectively "The Lovers," "The Declaration," "The Lovers"
Quarrel" and "The Marriage." They const.i.tute a regular art gallery.
I"ll use a couple of the frames for some small Colonial and apple blossom pictures I have, that I just love, by Wallace Nutting. Mine are all unframed; "Maiden Reveries," "A Canopied Roof" and a "Ton of Bloom," I think are sweet. Those branches of apple trees, covered with a ma.s.s of natural-looking pink blossoms, are exquisite."
"Yes," remarked Aunt Sarah, "they look exactly like our old Baldwin, Winesap and Cider apple trees in the old, south meadow in the Spring.
And, Mary, we"ll discard those two chromos, popular a half century ago, of two beautiful cherubs called respectively, "Wide Awake" and "Fast Asleep," given as premiums to a popular magazine. I don"t remember if the magazine was "G.o.dey"s," "Peterson"s" or "Home Queen"; they have good, plain, mahogany frames which we can use."
"And, Aunt Sarah," said Mary, "we can cut out the part.i.tion in this large, black-walnut frame, containing lithograph pictures of General George Washington, "the Father of his Country" (we are informed in small letters at the bottom of the picture), and of General Andrew Jackson, "the hero of New Orleans." Both men are pictured on horseback, on gayly-caparisoned, prancing white steeds, with scarlet saddle cloth, edged with gold bullion fringe. The Generals are pictured clad in blue velvet coats with white facings of cloth or satin vest and tight-fitting knee breeches, also white and long boots reaching to the knee. Gold epaulettes are on their shoulders, and both are in the act of lifting their old-fashioned Continental hats, the advancing army showing faintly in the background. How gorgeously they are arrayed! We will use this frame for the excellent, large copy you have of "The Doctor" and the pictured faces of the German composers--Beethoven, Wagner, Mendelssohn, Haydn, Schubert and Mozart, which I have on a card with a shaded brown background, will exactly fit into this plain frame of narrow molding, from which I have just removed the old cardboard motto, "No place like home," done with green-shaded zephyr in cross-st.i.tch."
[Ill.u.s.tration:
A-29 An Old Sampler A-30 Old Woven Basket A-31 Wax Cross A-32 Old Spinning Wheel]
"Now, Mary, with the couple of comfortable rockers which I intend purchasing, I think we have about finished planning our room."
"If you are willing, Aunt Sarah, I should like to make some pretty green and brown cretonne slips to cover those square sofa pillows in place of the ones made of small pieces of puffed silk and the one of colored pieces of cashmere in log cabin design, I do admire big, fat, plain, comfortable pillows, for use instead of show. And we must have a waste paper basket near the table beside Uncle John"s chair. I shall contribute green satin ribbon for an immense bow on the side of the basket. Oh! Aunt Sarah! You"ve forgotten all about this odd, woven basket, beside the what-not, filled with sea sh.e.l.ls. I don"t care for the sh.e.l.ls, but the basket would make a lovely sewing basket."
"You may have the basket, Mary, if you like it. It came from Panama, or perhaps it was bought at Aspinwall by John"s Uncle, many years ago, when he came home on a visit from California, by way of the Isthmus, to visit old friends and relatives. John"s Mother always kept it standing on the floor in one corner of the room beside the what-not."
"Aunt Sarah, why was straw ever put under this carpet?"
"The straw was put there, my dear, to save the carpet, should the boards on the floor be uneven. My Mother was always particular about having _cut rye straw_, because it was softer and finer than any other. It was always used in those days instead of the carpet linings we now have. I remember sometimes, when the carpet had been newly laid, in our home, immediately after house cleaning time, the surface of the floor looked very odd; full of b.u.mps and raised places in spots, until frequent walking over it flattened down the straw. This room happens to have a particularly good, even floor, as this part of the house was built many years later than the original, old farm house, else it would not do to have it painted."
"Aunt Sarah, may I have the old spinning wheel in the attic? I"d love to furnish an old Colonial bedroom when I have a home of my very own.
I"ll use the rag carpet you made me for the floor, the old-fashioned, high-post bed Uncle John said I might have, and the "New Colonial"
rugs you taught me to make.
"Yes, my dear, and there is another old grandfather"s clock in the attic which you may have; and a high-boy also, for which I have no particular use."
"Aunt Sarah, we shall not put away this really beautiful old sampler worked in silk by Uncle John"s grandmother when a girl of nine years.
It is beautifully done, and is wonderful, I think. And what is this small frame containing a yellowed piece of paper cut in intricate designs, presumably with scissors?"
"Look on the back of the picture and see what is written there, my dear," said her Aunt.
Mary slowly read: ""This is the only picture I owned before my marriage. I earned the money to buy it by gathering wheat heads.""
"It belonged to my grandmother," said Aunt Sarah. "In old times, after the reapers had left the field, the children were allowed to gather up the wheat remaining, and, I suppose, grandmother bought this picture with the money she earned herself, and considered it quite a work of art in her day. It is over one hundred years old."
CHAPTER XVII.
AN OLD SONG EVENING.
Aunt Sarah and Mary spent few idle moments while carrying out their plans for "doing over" the old parlor. Finally, "twas finished. Mary breathed a sigh of satisfaction as the last picture was hung on the wall. She turned to her Aunt, saying, "Don"t you think the room looks bright, cheery and livable?"
"Yes," replied her Aunt, "and what is more essential, homey, I have read somewhere, "A woman"s house should be as personal a matter as a spider"s web or a snail"s sh.e.l.l; and all the thought, toil and love she puts into it should be preserved a part of its comeliness and homelikeness forever, and be her monument to the generations.""
"Well, Aunt Sarah," replied Mary, "I guess we"ve earned our monument.
The air that blows over the fields, wafted in from the open window, is sweet with the scent of grain and clover, and certainly is refreshing.
I"m dreadfully tired, but so delighted with the result of our labors.
Now we will go and "make ready," as Sibylla says, before the arrival of Ralph from the city. I do hope the ice cream will be frozen hard.
The Sunshine Sponge Cake, which I baked from a recipe the Professor"s wife gave me, is light as a feather. "Tis Ralph"s favorite cake. Let"s see; besides Ralph there are coming all the Schmidts, Lucy Robbins, the school teacher, and Sibylla entertains her Jake in the kitchen. I promised to treat him to ice cream; Sibylla was so good about helping me crack the ice to use for freezing the cream. We shall have an "Old Song Evening" that will amuse every one."
Quite early, as is the custom in the country, the guests for the evening arrived; and both Mary and Aunt Sarah felt fully repaid for their hard work of the past weeks by the pleasure John Landis evinced at the changed appearance of the room.
The Professor"s wife said, "It scarcely seems possible to have changed the old room so completely."
Aunt Sarah replied, "Paint and paper do wonders when combined with good taste, furnished by Mary."
During the evening one might have been forgiven for thinking Professor Schmidt disloyal to the Mother Country (he having been born and educated in Heidelberg) had you overheard him speaking to Ralph on his favorite subject, the "Pennsylvania German." During a lull in the general conversation in the room Mary heard the Professor remark to Ralph: "The Pennsylvania Germans are a thrifty, honest and industrious cla.s.s of people, many of whom have held high offices. The first Germans to come to America as colonists in Pennsylvania were, as a rule, well to do. Experts, when examining old doc.u.ments of Colonial days, after counting thousands of signatures, found the New York "Dutch" and the Pennsylvania "Germans" were above the average in education in those days. Their dialect, the so-called "Pennsylvania German" or "Dutch," as it is erroneously called by many, is a dialect which we find from the Tauber Grund to Frankfurt, A.M. As the German language preponderated among the early settlers, the language of different elements, becoming amalgamated, formed a cla.s.s of people frequently called "Pennsylvania Dutch"."
Professor Harbaugh, D.D., has written some beautiful poems in Pennsylvania German which an eminent authority, Professor Kluge, a member of the Freiburg University, Germany, has thought worthy to be included among the cla.s.sics. They are almost identical with the poems written by Nadler in Heidelberger Mundart, or dialect.
Mary, who had been listening intently to the Professor, said, when he finished talking to Ralph: "Oh, please, do repeat one of Professor Harbaugh"s poems for us."
He replied, "I think I can recall several stanzas of "Das Alt Schulhaus an der Krick." Another of Professor Harbaugh"s poems, and I think one of the sweetest I have ever read, is "Heemweeh." Both poems are published in his book ent.i.tled "Harbaugh"s Harfe," in Pennsylvania German dialect, and possess additional interest from the fact that the translations of these poems, in the latter part of the same book, were made by the author himself."
"Oh, do repeat all that you remember of both the poems," begged Mary.
The Professor consented, saying: "As neither you nor Mr. Jackson understand the Pennsylvania German dialect, I shall translate them for you, after repeating what I remember. "Heemweeh" means Homesickness, but first I shall give you "Das Alt Schulhaus an der Krick"."
[A]DAS ALT SCHULHAUS AN DER KRICK.
Heit is "s "xactly zwansig Johr, Da.s.s ich bin owwe naus; Nau bin ich widder lewig z"rick Un schteh am Schulhaus an d"r Krick, Juscht neekscht an"s Dady"s Haus.
Ich bin in hunnert Heiser g"west, Vun Marbelstee" un Brick, Un alles was sie hen, die Leit, Dhet ich verschwappe eenig Zeit For"s Schulhaus an der Krick.