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Page 23
"This chair has stood firm when the thrones of kings were overturned!"
thought Laurence. "Its oaken frame has proved stronger than many frames
of government!"
More the thoughtful and imaginative boy might have mused; but now a
large yellow cat, a great favorite with all the children, leaped in at
the open window. Perceiving that Grandfather's chair was empty, and
having often before experienced its comforts, puss laid herself quietly
down upon the cushion. Laurence, Clara, Charley, and little Alice, all
laughed at the idea of such a successor to the worthies of old times.
"Pussy," said little Alice, putting out her hand, into which the cat
laid a velvet paw, "you look very wise. Do tell us a story about
GRANDFATHER'S CHAIR!"
PART II.
CHAPTER I.
"O Grandfather," dear Grandfather, cried little Alice, "pray tell us
some more stories about your chair!"
How long a time had fled, since the children had felt any curiosity to
hear the sequel of this venerable chair's adventures! Summer was now
past and gone, and the better part of Autumn likewise. Dreary, chill
November was howling, out of doors, and vexing the atmosphere with
sudden showers of wintry rain, or sometimes with gusts of snow, that
rattled like small pebbles against the windows.
When the weather began to grow cool, Grandfather's chair had been
removed from the summer parlor into a smaller and snugger room. It now
stood by the side of a bright blazing wood-fire. Grandfather loved a
wood-fire, far better than a grate of glowing anthracite, or than the
dull heat of an invisible furnace, which seems to think that it has done
its duty in merely warming the house. But the wood-fire is a kindly,
cheerful, sociable spirit, sympathizing with mankind, and knowing that
to create warmth is but one of the good offices which are expected from
it. Therefore it dances on the hearth, and laughs broadly through the
room, and plays a thousand antics, and throws a joyous glow over all the
faces that encircle it.
In the twilight of the evening, the fire grew brighter and more
cheerful. And thus, perhaps, there was something in Grandfather's heart,
that cheered him most with its warmth and comfort in the gathering
twilight of old age. He had been gazing at the red embers, as intently
as if his past life were all pictured there, or as if it were a prospect
of the future world, when little Alice's voice aroused him.
"Dear Grandfather," repeated the little girl, more earnestly, "do talk
to us again about your chair."
Laurence, and Clara, and Charley, and little Alice, had been attracted
to other objects, for two or three months past. They had sported in the
gladsome sunshine of the present, and so had forgotten the shadowy
region of the past, in the midst of which stood Grandfather's chair. But
now, in the autumnal twilight, illuminated by the flickering blaze of
the wood-fire, they looked at the old chair and thought that it had
never before worn such an interesting aspect. There it stood, in the
venerable majesty of more than two hundred years. The light from the
hearth quivered upon the flowers and foliage, that were wrought into its
oaken back; and the lion's head at the summit seemed almost to move its
jaws and shake its mane.
"Does little Alice speak for all of you?" asked Grandfather. "Do you
wish me to go on with the adventures of the chair?"
"Oh, yes, yes, Grandfather!" cried Clara. "The dear old chair! How
strange that we should have forgotten it so long!"
"Oh, pray begin, Grandfather," said Laurence; "for I think, when we talk
about old times, it should be in the early evening before the candles
are lighted. The shapes of the famous persons, who once sat in the
chair, will be more apt to come back, and be seen among us, in this
glimmer and pleasant gloom, than they would in the vulgar daylight. And,
besides, we can make pictures of all that you tell us, among the glowing
embers and white ashes."
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