CHAPTER XVI.
OLD PARLOR MADE BEAUTIFUL (MODERNIZED).
When John Landis came into possession of "Clear Spring" Farm, where his mother had lived during her lifetime, she having inherited it from her father, the rooms of the old farm house were filled with quaint, old-fashioned furniture of every description.

"Aunt Sarah," on coming to the farm to live, had given a personal touch and cheery, homelike look to every room in the house, with one exception, the large, gloomy, old-fashioned parlor, which was cold, cheerless and damp.

She confessed to Mary she always felt as if John's dead-and-gone ancestors' ghostly presences inhabited the silent room.

The windows were seldom opened to allow a ray of sunlight to penetrate the dusk with which the room was always enveloped, except when the regular weekly sweeping day arrived; when, after being carefully swept and dusted, it was promptly closed.

A room every one avoided, Aunt Sarah was very particular about always having fresh air and sunlight in every other part of the house but his one room.