[p. 83] naturally grew in her mind to be an essential feature of hospitality, which as she became old she passed along to children and grandchildren.
In the room to the left of the front door Anna Coffin kept a small shop for the sale of East India goods, brought home by her husband, and by this means eked out a scanty income during his long and uncertain voyages to China, thus beginning the traditional family use of blue India china so precious ever since to the initiated. The shutter of the shop window, when opened, projected far enough beyond the corner of the house to be visible down the side lane, the children's way home from school. How eagerly they watched for that sign of their mother's being at home, and how cheery was her welcome when they ran in. Then their dinner became a feast to them, particularly if they might bake a potato in the ashes. On the occasions when the mother had to go to the ‘continent,’ as these good islanders called the main-land, to exchange whale oil, candles, and other staples of the island for dry goods and groceries, Lucretia was left in charge of the little family, and early learned the simpler parts of housekeeping. These excursions were serious journeys in those days, and the return home almost as exciting as the return of the vessels from China, or from the still greater perils of a whaling voyage. When one of these was sighted and the crier, going his rounds, cried the good news at the street corners, the population betook themselves to the house-tops, spy-glass in hand, to see whose ship was coming in, and by the time it had crossed the bar and was rounding the point, Long Wharf was filled with an expectant crowd. Nantucket was then at the height of her commercial success. It was said that the little island contributed more men to the whale fishing and East India trade than any other town of its population. So identical was such employment with thrift and prosperity that a Nantucket good wife asked no better fortune than ‘a clean hearth and a husband at sea,’
