But the floor was without the
sign of a carpet, and the bare boards looked to Ellen very
comfortless. The hard-finished walls were not very smooth, nor
particularly white. The doors and wood-work, though very neat,
and even carved with some attempt at ornament, had never known
the touch of paint, and had grown in the course of years to be
a light-brown colour. The room was very bare of furniture,
too. A dressing-table, pier-table, or what-not, stood between
the windows, but it was only a half-circular top of pine-board
set upon three very long bare-looking legs — altogether of a
most awkward and unhappy appearance, Ellen thought, and quite
too high for her to use with any comfort. No glass hung over
it, nor anywhere else. On the north side of the room was a
fireplace; against the opposite wall stood Ellen's trunk and
two chairs; that was all, except the cot-bed she was lying on,
and which had its place opposite the windows. The coverlid of
that came in for a share of her displeasure, being of home-
made white and blue worsted, mixed with cotton, exceeding
thick and heavy.
"I wonder what sort of a blanket is under it," said Ellen, "if
I can ever get it off to see! Pretty good; but the sheets are
cotton, and so is the pillow-case!"
She was still leaning on her elbow, looking around her with a
rather discontented face, when some door being opened down-
stairs, a great noise of hissing and sputtering came to her
ears, and presently after there stole to her nostrils a
steaming odour of something very savoury from the kitchen.
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