It was one of those rusty , moss-grown , many-peaked wooden houses which are scattered about the streets of our elder towns , with a beetle-browed second story projecting over the foundation , as if it frowned at the novelty around it . This old paternal edifice , needy as he was , and though , being centrally situated on the principal street of the town , it would have brought him a handsome sum , the sagacious Peter had his own reasons for never parting with , either by auction or private sale . There seemed , indeed , to be a fatality that connected him with his birthplace ; for , often as he had stood on the verge of ruin , and standing there even now , he had not yet taken the step beyond it which would have compelled him to surrender the house to his creditors . So here he dwelt with bad luck till good should come . Here , then , in his kitchen -- the only room where a spark of fire took off the chill of a November evening -- poor Peter Goldthwaite had just been visited by his rich old partner . At the close of their interview , Peter , with rather a mortified look , glanced downward at his dress , parts of which appeared as ancient as the days of Goldthwaite & Brown . His upper garment was a mixed surtout , woefully faded , and patched with newer stuff on each elbow ; beneath this he wore a threadbare black coat , some of the silk buttons of which had been replaced with others of a different pattern ; and , lastly , though he lacked not a pair of gray pantaloons , they were very shabby ones , and had been partially turned brown by the frequent toasting of Peter 's shins before a scanty fire . Peter 's person was in keeping with his goodly apparel . Gray-headed , hollow-eyed , pale-cheeked and lean-bodied , he was the perfect picture of a man who had fed on windy schemes and empty hopes till he could neither live on such unwholesome trash nor stomach more substantial food . But , withal , this Peter Goldthwaite , crack-brained simpleton as , perhaps , he was , might have cut a very brilliant figure in the world had he employed his imagination in the airy business of poetry instead of making it a demon of mischief in mercantile pursuits . After all , he was no bad fellow , but as harmless as a child , and as honest and honorable , and as much of the gentleman which Nature meant him for , as an irregular life and depressed circumstances will permit any man to be . As Peter stood on the uneven bricks of his hearth looking round at the disconsolate old kitchen his eyes began to kindle with the illumination of an enthusiasm that never long deserted him . He raised his hand , clenched it and smote it energetically against the smoky panel over the fireplace . `` The time is come , '' said he ; `` with such a treasure at command , it were folly to be a poor man any longer . Tomorrow morning I will begin with the garret , nor desist till I have torn the house down . '' Deep in the chimney-corner , like a witch in a dark cavern , sat a little old woman mending one of the two pairs of stockings wherewith Peter Goldthwaite kept his toes from being frost-bitten . As the feet were ragged past all darning , she had cut pieces out of a cast-off flannel petticoat to make new soles . Tabitha Porter was an old maid upward of sixty years of age , fifty-five of which she had sat in that same chimney-corner , such being the length of time since Peter 's grandfather had taken her from the almshouse . She had no friend but Peter , nor Peter any friend but Tabitha ; so long as Peter might have a shelter for his own head , Tabitha would know where to shelter hers , or , being homeless elsewhere , she would take her master by the hand and bring him to her native home , the almshouse . Should it ever be necessary , she loved him well enough to feed him with her last morsel and clothe him with her under-petticoat .
But Tabitha was a queer old woman , and , though never infected with Peter 's flightiness , had become so accustomed XXXXX his freaks and follies that she viewed them all as matters of course .
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