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This selection received first prize in the
essay division of Contrast's writing con-
test.

House Of Memories

BARBARA MOON

IREMEMBER pressing my face to the window and trying to see out-
side. It was impossible, for the diamond-shaped window had
panes of brilliant colored glass. It seems just like a church, I thought
as I watched the sunlight coming through the window making colored
splotches on my skin. That was my favorite window in my grand-
father's house.

It was an old-fashioned house in a dirty little town, but it had a
cheerful air about it, as if it had had a very happy life. My most
vivid memories are of a squeaking porch swing, a boiling teakettle
steaming the kitchen windows; of gleaming brass bedsteads, the quiet
ticking of a mantle clock, the antique glass shade on the dining room
light, and of animals galore. These animals were enough to delight
a five-year-oldgirl. They were of china, and completely filled a large,
hand-built corner cupboard. My sister and I spent hours looking at
them, and to our joy, we were sometimes allowed to play with them
if we were very careful.

It was a wonderful house, but the best thing in it was Grand-
father himself-my tall, white-haired, beautiful Daddy Ducky, whom
I loved best in the whole wide world, next to Mamma and Daddy and
Ida.

Daddy Ducky loved to play with Ida and me. He would take us
up to the attic filled with "gimcracks" (as he called them), and we
played with tin soldiers and other old toys. In the summer he took
us outside into the backyard and explained about the flowers that
grew there, and why the bees buzzed around them. He showed us
mysterious holes in the ground and taught us to fish for "crawdad"
with a string, bent pin, and fishing worm.

Later, when we were tired, Daddy Ducky would take us back
into the house and, setting us on his knees, would entertain us by
singing "Froggy Went A-Courtin'" and "Polly-Wolly-Doodle" while
we would gaze with heavy eyes around the room. The china animals
stared back at us, eagerly asking us to come and play; the diamond-
shaped colored window in the stair-well brightened the room like a

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