Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1897-08-19
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
!Great Grandma's Carpet. !
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1 BY PERSlO F. CHASE, =:
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BY PERSl0 F. CHASE.

M "itsis~d~tovefy morning. 8 Don't
,op:Want: q Porter & Greys
choose our new earpets? You know
we must get them down before Aunt
Dora comes next week."
~Yes,l will. gso Sa; butI;must
write some letters first. will be ready
in an hour s X s:.:S+<: ..:...
"Annie," said Grandma Belmont, who
was sitting by thse*ir4 litfsg, while
your mother is wf3tin IN xgou want
me to T.. tell you ~ H(fer got =
carpet?" y
''Oh, yes, grandma! You know there
is nothing like so well as hearing you
tell an old-fashioned story"
well, my dear, you know Is years
ago carpets were not: very common.
Very few people had them. There were
none made in this country, and an Eng
!ish carpet was very expensive:'
What did you have:son the floors,
grandma?" :.## Or
"Nothing-not even paint; but they
were secured white as sand could make
them. My mother had only one carpe,o
in the house, and that was on the par
lor floor. 1t was a. green-and-black
English carpet. l suppose my mother
made the first carpet that was ever
manufactured in New Hampshire, or
even New England. Your great-grand-
father was a lawyer, and at that time
Lancaster was not a shire town; the
courts were held at Haverhill. But after
awhile Lancaster was made shire
town. When father came home from
the spring term Of court at Haverhill,
he said the next. fall the court would
set in Lancaster, and as there was no
suitable place for the Judges to board,
he had promised to take them.
They used to have three Judges
the chief justice aud two side judges.
I'm sure don't know what they were
called side judges for, unless it was
because one sat on each side of the
Judge who attended to all the business
have often been into court with father,
and never heard one say a word. They
just sat there and looked wise Mother
was surprised enough when ia her said,
he was going to board.,he judges. -, 7ess
"'Why, father she said, what are
you thinking of? / There. is mot room
enough in the house. +
"'No,' said father, i know that; but
there will be by the fall. | am going
to have an addition Of two rooms bull,
on to the house, zz1sss .. ~ s..s,
~ don't see,' said mother, ;'how we
can get carpets; but if you are going
to have the judges board mere, will
see what can be DONE.
1T was not very long before father
had some men at work on the new
rooms, and mother began Ito thing
something must be done about the car
pets. So she went up to see Eunice
Stoclswell, and talk it over with her.
She was the best hand to weave there
was anywhere around. %-. ~
I'VE had lots of sheep and plenty
of wool, so mother took 40 pounds and
had it carded into rolls. Then she got
Nancy Greenleaf and Lucy White to
come and spin it. ~.yss -. n
ut was spun into good strong yarn.
four skeins to q pound. / was a little
girl, but it seems to me can see Nancy
and Lucy now, just, as they looked
spinning. They had their wheels up
in the great open chamber. It was in
sLmmer time, and the windows were
open at each end of the room. I used
to go up there and sit on an old chest by
the window and watch them spin.
Nancy was tall and slim and had light
hair, which she wore done up in little
ball on the top of her head. fastened
with a big comb. She wore her dress
quite short, and, as she stepped back
and forth, turning her wheel, she was