True American. [volume] (Steubenville [Ohio]) 1855-1861, 1856-11-05
q GooS Stury.
From Arthur's Home Magazine.
THE MERCHANT AND MILLER.
A TALE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
BY VIRGINIA F. TOWNSEND.

a TALE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
BY VIRGINIA F. TOWNSEND.
lIave you ever sat, reader, when the
autumn evenings were growing cool and
long, by some glowing birch wood fire in
an old farm kitchen, among the mountains
of New Hampshirel Those grand, old
druidical mountains, about which the
summer streams hang their silver neck
laces, and over which the winter storms
weave their garments of snow Then,
while the FIRE flames dashed their yellow
light over the great, brown rafters, and
with every break Of wind. The withered
leaves ratled against the panes. have you
listened to the story OF some " old settler
whose memory reached back to the time
when the bear and the wolf came down
to the fields; and sometimes Of an au-
tumn morning the little children would
90 softly Though The woods, to school
almost expecting to see pair of wild
glaring eyes among the bushes; and
whispered how they had heard, the night
before, of some neighbor's sheep cote
which had been broken into, and the
blood draggled grass had told the story
next day.
Well. listening TO just such tales, in the
autumn evenings, we dreamed among
those gray old mountains, the story we
are abou. 10 tell you.
:" guess we shall have raal warm
day of it, to morrow said the widow
Pcase, as she stood moment in the
kitchen door of the old farm house. at the
close of an April day. some two score
and half Of years ago just as the sun
was resting on the tops Of the mountains
that bounded the horizon. Sixty years
observation of the winds and clouds, had
made Mrs. Pease kind of weather ora
Gle in the village; and the good woman
prided herself no little upon her elemen'
tai foresight.
"Well, Lefty" sheconlinued, as she
closed The door, and returned to her
knitting and her chair by the Fireplace,
II Iguess it'll be first rate day to bile
the sap. I'll tell Enoch and Cyrus to
pile up the boughs to night. and hang on
the kettle, so you can have it all ready
to kindle in the morning. You know
they said the trees was running briskly
to day, and they'd have two tubs full afOre
night"
"They didn't though, mother!'' said
Lefty. pausing moment in her work
for she was setting the supper table
"Goody I'm so glad, for do love &c
have a sap boilit" )"
Letitia Pease was the child Of hel
mothers old age, and daintier bit Of ma
ture's baIdwork YOU have seldom look
ed upon. The next summer would
count her twentieth, and her blue eyes
were clear and brigb, as her New Hamp.
shire skies; and the mountain winds had
kindled ruddy glow in her fair checks
She was rather short, but straight, with a
finely curved figure, and plump a:
health and hearty appetite could make
her.
For her Characteristic was righ
down good hearted, light spirited New
England girl. That pretty little heat
Of hers had been slightly turned by the
hattery that sundry swains had poured
inlo it; but considering that she was the
shandsomest girl in the village, and knew
il, too, Lefty conducted herself remarka
bly, well. And perhaps after all, it was
not SO much her lair face as it was the
smiles that broke up from the warm foun
tains Of her nature and always dimpled i
that won so many hearts towards her
She was not sentimental. or inclined tc
the blues. Alas the damsel of fifty
years ago had not so intimate an acquain
lance with these matters as their descen
dants.
But now, reader, in order 10 do full
penance for this latter remark, we jus
admit that, for one, we don't believe ou
grandmolhers were any better than w
are-not a bit! ...
Nicer pies and rpuddings they cou|'
indisputably make; thrifty housekeepers
faithful wives, and loving mothers the
surely were. and for these things blesse,
be- their memory But, after all. spiunin,
wheels alone cannot enlarge ones sym
pathies, or daily darning stockings enricl
ones intellect f; and instinct and habit
narrowed down 10 the circle Of lhei
own family, the views and feeling
of the women Of the last century.
And the true woman Of the present Tim
has broader social sympathies and Viche
life and although she must acknowledg'
that her first duties are in her home, sh,
will not think they end there, as he
grandmother did, Knowledge that i
true to itself, exp ands the moral as well Al
the intellectual life (; and the world hasn
90 ne backward with the substitution o
botany for butter churns, and maIhemat
les for milking pals