CHAPTER V. 



MOTHS AT THE FIRESIDE. 



"There is a peculiar pleasure in the hearth when 

 the first autumnal frosts' call for fires. That is, if one 

 has an open grate or an old-fashioned fireplace. !Modern 

 stoves and furnaces have 1 urned all the poetry out of 

 the songs and traditions of the ' fireside.' 



" It requires a more vivid imagination than ordinary 

 mortals are blessed with to throw the charm of ' ingle- 

 side,' nnd all that, around a hole in the wall covered 

 by an iron filagree gate through whose perforations a 

 hot air-blast is pufflng. As to stoves, if we except the 

 good old 'Franklin,' and all of that ilk, there is 

 nothing to be said about or for them save that they do 

 'keep us warm.' " 



So the Mistress discoursed as Dan piled up the hick- 

 ory-wood upon the great back-log already smoldering 

 upon the sitting-room hearth. In the general repairs 

 which the old farmhouse had undergone this room was 

 preserved from the intrusion of a coal-grate, and its cav- 

 ernous depth dedicated to the ancient Lar of tlie and- 

 iron and crane. Behold us, tlien, the entire Ilighwood 

 family, seated before the first fire of the season, rejoicing 

 in its genial light and warmth. The specimens gathered 



