
***
It's a perfect little house. I wish I could step inside. I can't see a busy family there. Maybe two ladies, a mother and a spinster daughter. It would be very quiet and tidy. I see a stiff little settee and a side chair. A flowered rug. A wooden rocker with a seat cushion and some needlework waiting in a basket. Lace curtains. A linen-covered table set for tea near the fireplace. A grandfather clock in the corner. A neat little kitchen with embroidered tea towels. An old fashioned bathroom with lavender soap and a clawfoot tub. A landing on the stairs where the peaked window looks out onto the street. At the top of the stairs, two small bedrooms with iron bedsteads and white sheets and fresh flowers on a writing desk or a chest of drawers. I wonder what they dream about behind the pretty front door.
***
I had to come back to add the sleek white cat in the window sill and the daughter coming down the stairs in the morning in her old chenile robe and fluffy slippers to start the kettle for tea and stir up the fire. Church suppers, card games, choir practice and ordering plants for the garden in the spring. Visiting neices and nephews and an old piano. They are doing just fine in this little house.