THE NEW HOME. 27

what makes them warm: there stands the drum
—there must be a stove in the hall below. Al
this will be quite new to Mary. It would be
long before she would suspect, if not told, in
seeing that bronzed-looking statue standing on a
square pedestal, and having an arch over it, that
statue, and pedestal, and arch were all hollow,
and that the heated air from the stove below
ascended into them, and was distributed from
them through these upper rooms. But there
seem to be persons speaking below us: let us
go down.

Now we are in the basement, and is it not a
pleasant room, with the sun shining so brightly
on the windows, whose white muslin curtains
shade, but do not shut out, his rays? The canary
and mocking-bird do not want any shade, and so
they are hung inside the curtains; and how they
twitter and jump from side to side of their
perches, as if they longed to get out and have
more of the golden light. There is a little fire
in the grate, not because it is needed, however,
for the door is open, and there in the hall stands’
the Nott stove. Most people have some whims,