Palma and Poley followed the colored woman out of the parlor into the big, bare hall, up the broad stairs to the upper hall, which was quite as big and as bare. It was bitterly cold. With a heavily wooded country, with forests of pine, oak, cedar, hickory, chestnut, poplar and other timber, on the slopes and in the valleys, and with mines of coal among the rocks and caverns, it seemed yet impossible to keep a country house of that region warm in winter. You might keep certain rooms within it warm, but not the halls and passages, not the whole house, for the reason that they had no system of furnaces, registers, heat pipes and so forth; but then they were considered all the more wholesome on that account. Nevertheless, Palma shivered and shook as with an ague when she stepped upon the upper landing of the second floor hall. It was almost exactly like the hall below; four bedroom doors flanked it on each side, and there was a large window at each end, corresponding to the front and back door of the under one. Polly led them about halfway up the hall toward the front of the house, and paused before a door on the right hand, about midway, saying: “Here is yer room, ma’am, and the most comfortablest one in the whole house, ’ceps ’tis ole marster’s, which is downstairs, on t’other side ob de hall, behine de parlor, an’ befo’ de kitchen, and ‘tween ’em bofe, is sort o’ fended an’ warmed, and purtected by bofe sides habbin’ ob a big fire into it, bofe day an’ night.” She opened a door and showed them into a spacious chamber, warmed and lighted by a great fire of hickory logs in the ample chimney, which was directly opposite the door by which they had entered. Tall brass andirons supported the blazing logs, an antique brass fender and crossed fire-irons secured the rich Turkey rug and the polished oak floor from danger by falling brands or flying sparks; a carved oak mantelshelf surmounted the fireplace and supported an oblong mirror, with a tall silver candlestick at each end. There was a high window on each side of the fireplace, but both were closed now, sash and shutter, and the snowy dimity curtains were dropped. At the end of the room nearest the front of the house stood a large, four-post bedstead, with high-tented tester, from which hung full, white dimity curtains festooned and looped from ceiling to floor. Beside this white “marquee” lay a small Turkey rug. A chest of drawers, a walnut press, a corner washstand and two easy-chairs draped with white dimity completed the furniture. “That little door, ma’am,” said Polly, pointing to one in the wall opposite the foot of the bed, though a good distance from it, “leads into a d’essin’-yoom, where you can also keep yer extry clothes and fings as yer wouldn’t like to clutter up yer bedroom wid.” “Thank you,” said Palma, dropping into one of the easy-chairs and beginning to unbutton her own boots.