The Sitting room is small with a cosy fireplace and a window facing the north side of the yard. Here the Carr family sat around the table in front of the coal fire and read the Bible on Sunday night by the light of a brass kerosene lamp; here father read his newspaper in the evening while mother sewed, and so on. A copy of Emily's drawing of her father is on the mantle. From here you can return to the hallway.

Bible reading was all God's. We all came into the sitting-room with our faces very straight and our Bibles in our hands. There was always a nice fire in the grate, because, even in summer, Victoria nights are chilly. The curtains were drawn across the windows and the table was in front of the fire. It was a round table with a red cloth, and the brass lamp sitting in the middle threw a fine light on all the Bibles when we drew our chairs in close. Father's chair was big and stuffed, Mother's low with a high back. They faced each other where the table began to turn away from the fire. Between their chairs were it was too hot for anyone to sit, the cats lay sprawling on the rug before the fire. We circled between Father and Mother on the other side of the table. Father opened the big Family Bible at the place marked by the cross-stick text Lizzie had worked..."

--The Book of Small By Emily Carr.

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