I remember Mrs. Gregg laughing, and saying that the Jamesons were tickled to death to get some old blue cups which she had when she was married and did not pay much for then, and had used for fifteen years to put up her currant jelly in; and had paid her enough money for them to make up the amount which she had been trying to earn, by selling eggs, to buy a beautiful new tea-set of a brown-and-white ware.  I don’t think the Jamesons paid much for any of the dishes which they bought in our village; we are not very shrewd people, and it did not seem right to ask large prices for articles which had been put to such menial uses.  I think many things were given them.  I myself gave Harriet Jameson an old blue plate and another brown one which I had been using to bake extra pies in when my regular pie-plates gave out.  They were very discolored and cracked, but I never saw anybody more pleased than Harriet was.

I suppose the special feature of the Jamesons’ household adornments which roused the most comment in the village was the bean-pots.  The Jamesons, who did not like baked beans and never cooked them, had bought, or had given them, a number of old bean-pots, and had them sitting about the floor and on the tables with wild flowers in them.  People could not believe that at first; they thought they must be some strange kind of vase which they had had sent from New York.  They cast sidelong glances of sharpest scrutiny at them when they called.  When they discovered that they were actually bean-pots, and not only that, but were sitting on the floor, which had never been considered a proper place for bean-pots in any capacity, they were really surprised.  Flora Clark said that for her part her bean-pot went into the oven with beans in it, instead of into the corner with flowers in it, as long as she had her reason.  But I must say I did not quite agree with her.  I have only one bean-pot, and we eat beans, therefore mine has to be kept sacred to its original mission; and I must say that I thought Mrs. Jameson’s with goldenrod in it really looked better than mine with beans.  I told Louisa that I could not see why the original states of inanimate things ought to be remembered against them when they were elevated to finer uses any more than those of people, and now that the bean-pot had become a vase in a parlor why its past could not be forgotten.  Louisa agreed with me, but I don’t doubt that many people never looked at those pots full of goldenrod without seeing beans.  It was to my way of thinking more their misfortune than the Jamesons’ mistake; and they made enough mistakes which were not to be questioned not to have the benefit of any doubt.

Soon the Jamesons, with their farm, were the standing joke in our village.  I had never known there was such a strong sense of humor among us as their proceedings awakened.  Mr. H. Boardman Jameson did not remain in Fairville long, as he had to return to his duties at the custom-house.  Mrs. Jameson, who seemed to rouse herself suddenly from the languid state which she had assumed at times, managed the farm.  She certainly had original ideas and the courage of her convictions.