human
Je-roosh-y! ain't they handsome! exclaimed Osh, standing in the middle of the room with the family surrounding him in various attitudes of ecstasy.
gpt
But they're too faded out to leave's they be, ain't they, Mis' Carey? You'll have to cover 'em up with new paper, won't you, or shall you let me put a coat of varnish on 'em?
human
No, Mr. Popham, we mustn't have any 'shine' on the landscapes. Yes, they are dreadfully dim and faded, but I simply cannot have them covered up!
gpt
It would be wicked to hide them! said Nancy.
human
Oh, Muddy, _is_ it our duty to write to Mr. Hamilton and tell him about them? He would certainly take the house away from us if he could see how beautiful we have made it, and now here is another lovely thing to tempt him. Could anybody give up this painted chamber if it belonged to him?
gpt
Well, you see, said Mr. Popham assuringly,
human
Is she fashionable?
gpt
You bet she is! She's tall an' slim an' so chuck full of airs she'd blow away if you give her a puff o' the bellers! The only time she come here she stayed just twenty-four hours, but she nearly died, we was all so 'vulgar.' She wore a white dress ruffled up to the waist, and a white Alpine hat, an' she looked exactly like the picture of Pike's Peak in my stereopticon. Mis' Popham overheard her say Beulah was full o' savages if not cannibals. 'Well,' I says to Maria, 'no matter where she goes, nobody'll ever want to eat _her_ alive!'--Look at that meetin' house over the mantel shelf, an' that grassy Common an' elm trees! 'T wa'n't no house painter done these walls!
human
And look at this space between the two front windows, cried Kathleen.
gpt
See the hens and chickens and the Plymouth Rock rooster!
human
And the white calf lying down under the maple; he's about the prettiest thing in the room,
gpt
We must just let it be and think it out, said Mother Carey.
human
Don't put any new paper on, now; there's plenty to do downstairs.
gpt
I don't know 's I should particularly like to lay abed in this room, said Osh, his eyes roving about the chamber judicially.
human
I shouldn't hev no comfort ondressin' here, nohow; not with this mess o' live stock lookin' at me every minute, whatever I happened to be takin' off. I s'pose that rooster'd be right on to his job at sun-up! Well, he couldn't git ahead of Mis' Popham, that's one thing; so 't I shouldn't be any worse off 'n I be now! I don't get any too much good sleep as 't is! Mis' Popham makes me go to bed long afore I'm ready, so 't she can git the house shut up in good season; then 'bout 's soon's I've settled down an' bed one short nap she says, 'It's time you was up, Ossian!
gpt
Mother! I have an idea! cried Nancy suddenly, as Mr. Popham took his leave and the family went out into the hall.
human
Do you know who could make the walls look as they used to? My dear Olive Lord!
gpt
She's only sixteen!
human
But she's a natural born genius! You wait and see the things she does!
gpt
Perhaps I could take her into town and get some suggestions or some instruction, with the proper materials, said Mrs. Carey,
human
Nothing that Olive does would ever be put behind anybody's door, Nancy answered decisively.
gpt
I'm not old enough to know anything about painting, of course (except that good landscapes ought not to be reversible like our Van Twiller), but there's something about Olive's pictures that makes you want to touch them and love them!