After this, followed a division of his property amongst his children,
five sons, and two daughters. The "Homeplace" was given to his sons
Ephraim and Atherton. Ephraim had a good house of his own, so he took
his share of the property in land, and Atherton went to live in the
old homestead. His quarters had been poor enough; he had not been so
successful as his brothers, and had been unable to live as well. It
had been a great cross to his wife, Dorcas, who was very high
spirited. She had compared, bitterly, the poverty of her household
arrangements, with the abundant comfort of her sisters-in-law.
Now, she seized eagerly at the opportunity of improving her style of
living. The old Wales house was quite a pretentious edifice for those
times. All the drawback to her delight was, that Grandma should have
the southwest fire-room. She wanted to set up her high-posted
bedstead, with its enormous feather-bed in that, and have it for her
fore-room. Properly, it was the fore room, being right across the
entry from the family sitting room. There was a tall chest of drawers
that would fit in so nicely between the windows, too.
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