`` Yes , mother . '' `` I shall want you to help me about the baking , by and by . '' `` Yes , mother . '' `` Roxy is cleaning the cellar-closets , so you 'll have to get the vegetables ready for dinner . Father wants a boiled dish , and I shall be so busy I ca n't see to it . '' `` Yes , mother . '' A cheerful voice gave the three answers , but it cost Merry an effort to keep it so , for she had certain little plans of her own which made the work before her unusually distasteful . Saturday always was a trying day , for , though she liked to see rooms in order , she hated to sweep , as no speck escaped Mrs. Grant 's eye , and only the good old-fashioned broom , wielded by a pair of strong arms , was allowed . Baking was another trial : she loved good bread and delicate pastry , but did not enjoy burning her face over a hot stove , daubing her hands with dough , or spending hours rolling out cookies for the boys ; while a `` boiled dinner '' was her especial horror , as it was not elegant , and the washing of vegetables was a job she always shirked when she could . However , having made up her mind to do her work without complaint , she ran upstairs to put on her dust-cap , trying to look as if sweeping was the joy of her life . `` It is such a lovely day , I did want to rake my garden , and have a walk with Molly , and finish my book so I can get another , '' she said with a sigh , as she leaned out of the open window for a breath of the unusually mild air . Down in the ten-acre lot the boys were carting and spreading loam ; out in the barn her father was getting his plows ready ; over the hill rose the smoke of the distant factory , and the river that turned the wheels was gliding through the meadows , where soon the blackbirds would be singing . Old Bess pawed the ground , eager to be off ; the gray hens were scratching busily all about the yard ; even the green things in the garden were pushing through the brown earth , softened by April rains , and there was a shimmer of sunshine over the wide landscape that made every familiar object beautiful with hints of spring , and the activity it brings . Something made the old nursery hymn come into Merry 's head , and humming to herself , `` In works of labor or of skill I would be busy too , '' she tied on her cap , shouldered her broom , and fell to work so energetically that she soon swept her way through the chambers , down the front stairs to the parlor door , leaving freshness and order behind her as she went . She always groaned when she entered that apartment , and got out of it again as soon as possible , for it was , like most country parlors , a prim and chilly place , with little beauty and no comfort . Black horse-hair furniture , very slippery and hard , stood against the wall ; the table had its gift books , albums , worsted mat and ugly lamp ; the mantel-piece its china vases , pink shells , and clock that never went ; the gay carpet was kept distressingly bright by closed shutters six days out of the seven , and a general air of go-to-meeting solemnity pervaded the room . Merry longed to make it pretty and pleasant , but her mother would allow of no change there , so the girl gave up her dreams of rugs and hangings , fine pictures and tasteful ornaments , and dutifully aired , dusted , and shut up this awful apartment once a week , privately resolving that , if she ever had a parlor of her own , it should not be as dismal as a tomb . The dining-room was a very different place , for here Merry had been allowed to do as she liked , yet so gradual had been the change , that she would have found it difficult to tell how it came about . It seemed to begin with the flowers , for her father kept his word about the `` posy pots , '' and got enough to make quite a little conservatory in the bay-window , which was sufficiently large for three rows all round , and hanging-baskets overhead . Being discouraged by her first failure , Merry gave up trying to have things nice everywhere , and contented herself with making that one nook so pretty that the boys called it her `` bower . ''
Even busy Mrs. XXXXX owned that plants were not so messy as she expected , and the farmer was never tired of watching `` little daughter '' as she sat at work there , with her low chair and table full of books .
Father Grant Merry bay-window day days dust-cap labor nook week