58 DANVIS FARM LIFE 



baked beans to compare with those which the old 

 brick ovens and bake-kettles gave forth. 



In those old kitchens that have partly with- 

 stood the march of improvement, the great fire- 

 place has fallen into disuse. Oftener it has been 

 torn down, chimney, oven, and all, to make room, 

 now deemed better than its company, and its 

 place supplied by the more convenient cook-stove. 

 The woodwork is painted, the smoke-stained 

 whitewash is covered by figured wall-paper; and- 

 irons, crane, pot-hook, and trammel have gone 

 for old iron; the place of the open dresser is 

 usurped by a prim closed cupboard; big and little 

 wheel, relics of an almost lost and forgotten 

 handicraft, have long since been banished to the 

 garret. There, too, has gone the ancient clock, 

 and a short, dapper timepiece, on whose lower 

 half is a landscape of startling colors, hurries the 

 hours away with swift loud tick. 



Everything has undergone some change; even 

 the old gun has had its flintlock altered to per- 

 cussion. 



Of all the rooms in our farmhouse, the kitchen 

 chamber is probably the least changed. Its 

 veined and blistered whitewashed ceiling, low 

 sloping at the sides, still bumps unwary heads. 

 The great trunk that held grandmother's bedding 

 when she and grandfather, newly wedded, moved 

 into this, then, wild country, and the sailor great- 



