Mort Families of PA

Recollections of Lottie (Kent) Ruhl of her grandfather, Austin Allen:

He was a lovely man--but he couldn't sleep at night.  My grandparents each slept in a big bed right across from each other in the one room, and I slept in with Grandmother.  We had a curtain strung down between the two beds.  We were very modest in those days.
At any rate, when my grandfather would get awake, he always thought he might sleep better if he had something to eat.  Then he'd call me--quietly, so as not to waken my grandmother, and I'd get up and go with him.  The thought of food was the only thing that would have made me get out of that nice warm bed into that cold, cold house.  In the winter time, we put about as much on to sleep as we took off, and we used a lot of covers.
Grandfather would go off down the stairs, holding a candle, and I'd trail along behind him.  Of course the coffee pot was always on the stove.  He'd get a large size coffee saucer, and he'd put coffee in it--and molasses and bread and cream.  Then we'd eat and it was delicious, and then Grandfather would go back up the stairs with the candle, and I'd bring up the rear.  Back into bed, and we'd sleep better, since our stomachs were full--or at least we thought we did.