She led the way into the little sitting-room and drew aside the muslin half-curtains. Through the open window came the murmur of the running stream, the scent of pennyroyal, and the rays of the setting sun.
A striped rag carpet covered the floor and the walls, with gorgeous papering of flowers and vines, were hung with many old fashioned pictures.
There was the Lord's Prayer in an intricate design of crimson and gold, a framed sampler and motto, and smaller pictures in square and oval frames; these for the most part friends and relatives of the owner, their pictured features shadowed and dimmed by time.
In the middle of the room a square table with a red, woolen cover, held a half-dozen books cross-cornered one upon the other in several groups; a glass lamp filled with red-colored water and oil stood in the center, the top covered with a paper shade and the bottom swathed in a woolen mat.
A high, wooden mantel, painted black, occupied the other end of the room; the fireplace was hidden by a square, cambric screen, with a cut-out picture of fruit and flowers pasted in the center. Nettie's glance was immediately taken by a white marble book, with yellow painted edges and clasps, lying upon the old glass-knobbed bureau.
Mrs. Kump drew the straight-backed rattan rocker to the open window, giving it a hurried dusting with her black silk apron, and invited Mrs. Lee to be seated.
Then, as she noticed her visitor looking at the quilting frames which occupied one end of the room, she said,
"You'll think I'm slighting your quilt, Mis' Lee!—I got so far back on the job, with my poor legs bothering me so! But sez I to myself, 'I'll try and catch up on Thursday,' but when I went to the door this mornin' and found the good fairies' offerings, I fairly wilted. I made up my mind to keep the day, and I'm keepin' it; I haven't done a stroke of work!"
Mrs. Lee looked interested.
"The day—yes—I believe you told me—"