Litchfield enquirer. [volume] (Litchfield, Conn.) 1829-current, 1856-11-20
Our Old GRANDMOTHER.
BY DUMAS.

IN the following life-like description Every
body has, or oaght to have grandmother :
and how good grandmothers are worshiped !
T! Reader, read the following and weep-i, will
do you no harm to yield to weakness so ami
able, so tender. But read it, aud say if it is
not & beautiful life, illustration :
There is large cid kitchen somewhere i'm
tire past, and an old-fashionc,l Fireplace therein,
with its smooth old jambs of stone; smooth
with many knives that have been sharncnpt,
there, smooth with many little fingers tint
have chung there. There are aniirons, with
rings III the top, wherein many temples of fame
have been buildcd with spires aud turrets Of
crimson. There is q broad, worn henrth /;
broad enough for three generations TO cluster
on worn by feet that have been torn and
bleeding by the way, or been made 'beauti-
full" and walked upon floors of tessclated gold.
There are tongs in the Corner whcrewith we
grasp coal ard blowing for little life, I"
lighted our FIRST candle there IS a shovel
wherewIth were drawn forth the glowing en-
bcrs, IN which We saw our first fancics aud
dreamed our FIRST dreams: the shovel will,
which we stirred the loe.s until the spark,
rushed up the chimney as if forge was in blast
! below, and wished we had so many lambs, or
SO many marbles. or Sc many som, things that
NC coveted and so it was we wished our first
wishes
There is char-a low, rusl-bottomed chair:
there is n little wheel in the corner Big wheel
i'll the garnet, loom in the chamber. Thcrc
! are chestsinll of linen and yarn, and quilts Of
rare patterns, and samplers in frames
Aud every where aud always the dear old
wlnkled face of her whose firm, elastic step
mocks the feeble saunter Of her chil!rcu's chill
drcn-the o!d-tashoncd grandmother of TWEEN
| ty years ago. She, the very Providence of the
old homestead she who loved US all, and said
| she wished there were more of Us TO love. and
took all the school in the hollow for grand
children besides. A great expansive heart was
hers, beneath that woollen gown, or that more
stately bombazm, or that ole heirloom Of silk
eu texture.
| We can sec her to-day. those mild, hnccyey.
with more of beauty in them than time could
! touch, or death do more than hdc--thosc eyes
that held both smiles aud tears within the
faintest call of every one Of us, and soft re-
proof that seemed not passion but regret A
| white tress has escaped from beneath her snowy
cap she has Just restored wandering lamb
to its mother: she lengthened the tether of a
vine that was straying over window, rs she
came in, and plucked a four-leaved clover for
Ellen, She sits down by the little wheeI--a
tress is running through her fingers from tho
dista6~s disshcvclled head, when small voice
cries, Grandma" from the CID rcd cradle,
and Is Grandma" Tommy shouts from the top
of the stairs. Gently she lets go the thread,
for her patience is almost as beautiful as her
charity, and she touches the little red bark a
moment, till the young voyaeer is il: dream
again. and then directs To,nmy's unava;ling at
| tempts to harness the cat
The tick of the clock rms faint and low,
aud she opens the mysterious door, and pro-
cecds to wind it up. We are all on tip-toe,
and we beg in breath, to be lifted up one by
one aud look in the hundredlh time upon the
tin cases of the weights, and the poor lonely
! pendulum, which goes to and fro by its title
dim windows and our petitions were all grant
ed, and we are lifted up, and we all touch with
the finger the wonderful weights, and the niu-
! sic of the wheel is resum-d
Was Mary to be married, or Jane to be
! wrapped in shroud So meekiy did she fold
the white hands of the one upon her still bo-
som, that there seemed to be prayer in them
there and so sweetly did she wroafhc the white
rose in the hair of the other, that one would
not have wondered had more roses budded for
the company. How she stood between us and
apprchended harm how the rndest of us soft
ened beneath the gentle pressure Of her faded
and 1remulous hand From her capacious
pocket that hand VAS ever withdrawn closed,
! only to be opened in our own, with the nuts she
had gathered, with tile cherries she had pucked.
| the little egg she had found, the turnover
she had baked. the trinket she had purchased
for us as the products of her spinning the bless