No especial furniture for the living room had been provided, but by stealing a few chairs and odd pieces from the ample supply provided for the bedrooms, adding the two quaint sofas and the upright piano and spreading the rugs in an artistic fashion, Ethel managed to make the "parlor part" of the room appear very cosy.
The dining corner had a round table and high-backed chairs finished in weathered oak, and when all was in order the effect was not inharmonious.

Some inspiration had induced Mr.Merrick to send down a batch of eighteen framed pictures, procured at a bargain but from a reliable dealer.

He thought they might "help out," and Ethel knew they would, for the walls of the old house were quite bare of ornament.

She made them go as far as possible, and Old Hucks, by this time thoroughly bewildered, hung them where she dictated and made laughable attempts to describe the subjects to blind Nora.
A telegram, telephoned over from the junction, announced the proposed arrival of the party on Thursday morning, and the school-teacher was sure that everything would be in readiness at that time.

The paint on Lon's repairs would be dry, the grass in the front yard was closely cropped, and the little bed of flowers between the corn-crib and the wood-shed was blooming finely.