These were especially devoted to my benefit, for which I was duly appreciative. Over Mildred’s bed was hung a “God Bless Our Home,” wonderfully worked in the national colors; and beside Mr. Everett’s sofa was placed a gilded milking-stool of convenient height for holding vials and glasses, the legs artistically interlaced with scarlet ribbons, and the seat decorated with a painting, whether of Vesuvius in eruption or a dish of crushed tomatoes, I was never quite sure.
From the low window near which my bed was drawn Jim proudly pointed out to me his own quarters opposite. The house was an unpainted wooden structure of one story, and evidently possessed a slanting roof with gables, though the architect had erected a sham façade which gave the appearance, when one took a front view, of a house with a flat roof.
Extending across the whole front of the house was a sign of unique character painted in black on a pink ground, of which I subjoin an exact copy.
1886.
FRANKLIN
PHILOSOPHIC
HERMITAGE
Independent Scientific Repair Shop.
Clocks, Coopering, Chain Saws Filed
Tin Ware, Politics & Theology Tinkered