get ready to walk with him to the school. Clover took one arm, and
Katy the other, and the three passed between some lead-colored posts,
and took one of the diagonal paths which led across the common.

"That's the house," said Dr. Carr, pointing.

"It isn't the one you picked out, Clover," said Katy.

"No," replied Clover, a little disappointed. The house papa indicated
was by no means so pleasant as the one she had chosen.

It was a tall, narrow building, with dormer windows in the roof, and a
square porch supported by whitewashed pillars. A pile of trunks stood
in the porch. From above came sounds of voices. Girls' heads were
popped out of upper widows at the swinging of the gate, and, as the
door opened, more heads appeared looking over the balusters from the
hall above.

The parlor into which they were taken was full of heavy, old-fashioned
furniture, stiffly arranged. The sofa and chairs were covered with
black haircloth, and stood closely against the wall. Some books lay
upon the table, arranged two by two; each upper book being exactly at
a right angle with each lower book. A bunch of dried grasses stood
in the fire-place. There were no pictures, except one portrait in
oils, of a forbidding old gentleman in a wig and glasses, sitting with
his finger majestically inserted in a half-open Bible. Altogether, it
was not a cheerful room, nor one calculated to raise the spirits of
new-comers; and Katy, whose long seclusion had made her sensitive on
the subject of rooms, shrank instinctively nearer papa as they went in.