British author whom it is unnecessary to mention, a volume of sermons, or
a novel or two, or both, according to the tastes of the family, and the
Good Book, which is always Itself in the cheapest and commonest company.
The father of the family with his hand in the breast of his coat, the
mother of the same in a wide-bordered cap, sometimes a print of the Last
Supper, by no means Morghen's, or the Father of his Country, or the old
General, or the Defender of the Constitution, or an unknown clergyman
with an open book before him,--these were the usual ornaments of the
walls, the first two a matter of rigor, the others according to politics
and other tendencies.

This intermediate class of houses, wherever one finds them in New England
towns, are very apt to be cheerless and unsatisfactory. They have
neither the luxury of the mansion-house nor the comfort of the
farm-house. They are rarely kept at an agreeable temperature. The
mansion-house has large fireplaces and generous chimneys, and is open to
the sunshine. The farm-house makes no pretensions, but it has a good
warm kitchen, at any rate, and one can be comfortable there with the rest
of the family, without fear and without reproach. These lesser
country-houses of genteel aspirations are much given to patent
subterfuges of one kind and another to get heat without combustion. The
chilly parlor and the slippery hair-cloth seat take the life out of the
warmest welcome. If one would make these places wholesome, happy, and
cheerful, the first precept would be,--The dearest fuel, plenty of it,
and let half the heat go up the chimney. If you can't afford this, don't
try to live in a "genteel" fashion, but stick to the ways of the honest
farm-house.

There were a good many comfortable farm-houses scattered about Rockland.
The best of them were something of the following pattern, which is too