See, I shall put in this crooked sixpence." Grace examined her purse, and complained that all her stupid sixpences were straight.
"Never mind, miss; put in a hairpin, sooner than pass the stocking o' Christmas Eve." Grace had come prepared to encounter old customs.

She offered her shawl-pin: and Jael, who had modestly inserted her own gift, pinned Grace's offering on the outside of the stocking with a flush of pride.
Then they went upstairs with the servant, and Grace was ushered into a bedroom of vast size, with two huge fires burning at each end; each fireplace was flanked with a coal-scuttle full of kennel coal in large lumps, and also with an enormous basket of beech billets.

She admired the old-fashioned furniture, and said, "Oh, what a palace of a bedroom! This will spoil me for my little poky room.

Here one can roam about and have great thoughts.

Hillsborough, good-by! I end my days in the country." Presently her quick ears caught the rattle of swift wheels upon the hard road: she ran to the window, and peeped behind the curtain.