When the company had arrived, Temperance advised me to go in the parlor.
"Sit down, when you get there, and show less," she said.

I went in softly, and stood behind mother's chair, slightly abashed for a moment in the presence of the party--some eight or ten ladies, dressed in black levantine, or cinnamon-colored silks, who were seated in rocking-chairs, all the rocking-chairs in the house having been carried to the parlor for the occasion.

They were knitting, and every one had a square velvet workbag.

Most of them wore lace caps, trimmed with white satin ribbon.

They were larger, more rotund, and older than mother, whose appearance struck me by contrast.