The Shadow of Moloch Mountain (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1870 Excerpt: ...man, who seldom vouchsafed such an offer to a stranger, and who valued his family treasures to their full extent. With a smile of quiet amusement, Beatrice watched the preparations of the two convives as they seated themselves to their feast, and so soon as they were fairly engrossed, left the room and joined the throng of workers already busy in the great parlor. "How d'y do, Beatryce? How's your health since you've been to the city I" asked Mrs. Green, the sturdy, comfortable wife of Doctor Bliss's rival in Milvor. "Very good, thank you, Mrs. Green. Let me help you with that bar." "Thanky. You see we thought we'd set up the best quilt in this room, because it's the parlor, and birds of a feather had oughter flock together--don't you see 1" And Mrs. Green looked round upon her coadjutors for the approving laugh, of which they did not disappoint her, it being a fortunate illustration of the law of demand and supply, that to any persons of small intellectual average a very little wit goes a great way, or even no wit at all supplies the place of that stimulant better than the genuine article. Beatrice politely joined in the laugh, and also with more interest in the labor of raising the heavy quilting-bars upon the backs of four chairs, and securing them in the form of a hollow square by means of gimlets kept for that purpose. Next, the lining of the quilt--economically composed of a worn and faded counterpane--was sewed to the border of cloth tacked to the inner edges of the bars; then the rolls of cotton-wool were laid upon it, and a warm discussion as to the proper amount to be used went round the circle of ladies gathered about the frame like a congress of crows considering a prey fallen into their midst. "Well, every bod...