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. Grant 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 . The lamp helped , also , for Merry set up her own , and kept it so well trimmed that it burned clear and bright , shining on the green arch of ivy overhead , and on the nasturtium vines framing the old glass , and peeping at their gay little faces , and at the pretty young girl , so pleasantly that first her father came to read his paper by it , then her mother slipped in to rest on the lounge in the corner , and finally the boys hovered about the door as if the `` settin ' - room '' had grown more attractive than the kitchen . But the open fire did more than anything else to win and hold them all , as it seldom fails to do when the black demon of an airtight stove is banished from the hearth . After the room was cleaned till it shone , Merry begged to have the brass andirons put in , and offered to keep them as bright as gold if her mother would consent . So the great logs were kindled , and the flames went dancing up the chimney as if glad to be set free from their prison . It changed the whole room like magic , and no one could resist the desire to enjoy its cheery comfort . The farmer 's three-cornered leathern chair soon stood on one side , and mother 's rocker on the other , as they toasted their feet and dozed or chatted in the pleasant warmth . The boys ' slippers were always ready on the hearth ; and when the big boots were once off , they naturally settled down about the table , where the tall lamp , with its pretty shade of pressed autumn leaves , burned brightly , and the books and papers lay ready to their hands instead of being tucked out of sight in the closet . They were beginning to see that `` Merry 's notions '' had some sense in them , since they were made comfortable , and good-naturedly took some pains to please her in various ways .
Tom brushed his hair and washed his hands nicely before he XXXXX to table .
begged brings came chatted framing getting kept kindled shone worsted