The interior of the room was wainscoted, the floor paved with bright
red and cream-coloured tiles, and the tall stove in one corner
decorated with the same. The eastern end of the apartment was
adorned with an exquisite small group carved in oak, representing the
carpenter's shop at Nazareth, with the Holy Child instructed by
Joseph in the use of tools, and the Mother sitting with her book,
"pondering these things in her heart." All around were blocks of
wood and carvings in varying states of progress--some scarcely shaped
out, and others in perfect completion. And the subjects were equally
various. Here was an adoring angel with folded wings, clasped hands,
and rapt face; here a majestic head of an apostle or prophet; here a
lovely virgin saint, seeming to play smilingly with the instrument of
her martyrdom; here a grotesque miserere group, illustrating a fairy
tale, or caricaturing a popular fable here a beauteous festoon of
flowers and fruit, emulating nature in all save colour; and on the
work-table itself, growing under the master's hand, was a long
wreath, entirely composed of leaves and seed-vessels in their quaint
and beauteous forms--the heart-shaped shepherd's purse, the mask-like
skull-cap, and the crowned urn of the henbane.
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