Indeed, now the paper was falling off the walls with the damp, and the rats, mice, and moths--those "edaces rerum"-- had eaten, between them, most of the chair-bottoms and a considerable part of the floor.

Therefore, the parlour was the sole general sitting-room; and being breakfasted in, dined, and supped in, and, after supper, smoked in by Mr.Leslie to the accompaniment of rum-and-water, it is impossible to deny that it had what is called "a smell,"-- a comfortable, wholesome family smell, speaking of numbers, meals, and miscellaneous social habitation.

There were two windows: one looked full on the fir-trees; the other on the farmyard, with the pigsty closing the view.

Near the fir-tree window sat Mrs.Leslie; before her, on a high stool, was a basket of the children's clothes that wanted mending.

A work-table of rosewood inlaid with brass, which had been a wedding-present, and was a costly thing originally, but in that peculiar taste which is vulgarly called "Brummagem," stood at hand: the brass had started in several places, and occasionally made great havoc in the children's fingers and in Mrs.Leslie's gown; in fact it was the liveliest piece of furniture in the house, thanks to the petulant brasswork, and could not have been more mischievous if it had been a monkey.