parlor, were quite exposed, and furnished with, to us, a very queer
assortment of dishes. The Jamesons had not one complete set, and very
few pieces alike. They had simply ransacked the neighborhood for
forsaken bits of crockery-ware, the remnants of old wedding-sets
which had been long stored away on top shelves, or used for baking
or preserving purposes.

I remember Mrs. Gregg laughing, and saying that the Jamesons were
tickled to death to get some old blue cups which she had when she was
married and did not pay much for then, and had used for fifteen years
to put up her currant jelly in; and had paid her enough money for
them to make up the amount which she had been trying to earn, by
selling eggs, to buy a beautiful new tea-set of a brown-and-white
ware. I don't think the Jamesons paid much for any of the dishes
which they bought in our village; we are not very shrewd people, and
it did not seem right to ask large prices for articles which had
been put to such menial uses. I think many things were given them.
I myself gave Harriet Jameson an old blue plate and another brown
one which I had been using to bake extra pies in when my regular
pie-plates gave out. They were very discolored and cracked, but I
never saw anybody more pleased than Harriet was.

I suppose the special feature of the Jamesons' household adornments
which roused the most comment in the village was the bean-pots. The
Jamesons, who did not like baked beans and never cooked them, had
bought, or had given them, a number of old bean-pots, and had them
sitting about the floor and on the tables with wild flowers in them.
People could not believe that at first; they thought they must be
some strange kind of vase which they had had sent from New York. They
cast sidelong glances of sharpest scrutiny at them when they called.