Five-chimney farm Volume 1; a novel

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. 1877 Excerpt: ... had many chinks in its weather-boarding, but the little bit of magnesian-wire threw a blinding, white light over everything--over Felix, as master-magician, his arms bare to the elbows--over Kate and Annie, and honest Tom, quickened into wonder; and over the array of crucibles, and bottles, and the ivy which had forced its way in at a bigger chink, and spread a slender arm along the inside of the wall. "Fine, ain't it?" said Tom. "But it makes our faces'look queer. I like our own sun best, it's more natural." "How beautiful the ivy looks!" cried THE WORLD AS IT MIGHT BE. 131 Kate. "I think, if we had such a sun the world wouldn't be so dull--why, even the floor looks like the floor in a fairytale." "What nonsense, Katie!" said Annie, "How can you know what the floor's like in a fairy-tale? It never says anything about the floor." "Oh, but I know what it would be like; of course, it would not be a bit like a common floor. And look at that old broom--it's just like a witch's broom. There, it's out now, I am sorry!" "I agree with Tom," says Felix, inspecting one of his crucibles. "I think our sun's more natural. There would be something unreal in a world lighted by such a sun as that. I'm sure there'd be no bread and cheese and onions there." "0 Felix! who wants bread and cheese and onions? There would be strawberries and cream instead." "And there would be no people with needle-marks on their fingers," continues Felix, unmoved. "Nor turnips, nor beans, nor aprons, nor umbrellas." "Felix! my finger isn't pricked now, and, when I'm a woman, I'll never, never wear an apron!" exclaims Kate, indignant at these personal allusions, so cu...