They explored the house together and found in the big attic and the
stuffy, shut-up best parlor the most fascinating of treasure hordes. The
former, with its rows of old trunks and sea chests under the low eaves,
the queer garments and discarded hats hanging on the nails, the dusky
corners where the light from the little windows scarcely penetrated even
on a sunny May afternoon, was the girl's especial Paradise. Here she
came to play by herself on rainy days or when she did not care for
company. Her love of make-believe and romance had free scope here and
with no Jimmie to laugh and make fun of her imaginings she pretended to
her heart's content. Different parts of that garret gradually, in her
mind, came to have names of their own. In the bright spot, under the
north window, was Home, where she and the dolls and David--when the
cat could be coaxed from prowlings and mouse hunts to quiet and
slumber--lived and dined and entertained and were ill or well or happy
or frightened, according to the day's imaginative happenings. Sometimes
Home was a castle, sometimes a Swiss Family Robinson cave, sometimes
a store which transacted business after the fashion of Hamilton and
Company. And in other more or less fixed spots and corners were Europe,
to which the family voyaged occasionally; Niagara Falls--Mrs. Bailey's
honeymoon had been spent at the real Niagara; the King's palace; the den
of the wicked witch; Sherwood Forest; and Jordan, Marsh and Company's
store in Boston.
Jimmie Bacheldor liked the garret well enough, but imagination was not
his strongest quality and the best parlor had more charms for him.
In that parlor were the trophies of Captain Shadrach's seafaring
days--whales' teeth, polished and with pictures of ships upon them; the
model of a Chinese junk; a sea-turtle shell, flippers, head and all,
exactly like a real turtle except, as Mary-'Gusta said, 'it didn't have
any works'; a glass bottle with a model of the bark Treasure Seeker
inside; an Eskimo lance with a bone handle and an ivory point; a
cocoanut carved to look like the head and face of a funny old man; a
Cuban machete; and a set of ivory chessmen with Chinese knights and
kings and queens, all complete and set out under a glass cover.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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