The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1857-09-04
miscellaneous. 6.
OUR OLD GRANDMOTHER.

of dayS, let them love and honor her, Tor we
can tell them they will never 6nd another.
There is large old kitchen somewhere in
The past, and an od-fashioned fireplace therein,
with its smooth old jambs of ofstone-Smooth with
many knives that have been sharpened there
smooth with many little fingers that have cung
there. There are andirons, too-the old andi-
rons. with rings in the top, wherein many tenn
ples of fame have been builded, with spires and
turrets of crimson. There is broad, worn
hearth, by feet that have been torn and bleed
ing by the waV, or been made s'beautiful," and
walked upon floors of tesselated gold. There
are tongS in the corner, wherewlth we grasp
ed a coal, and ''blowng for a little hfe," Hgh-
ted our first candle there is shovel, where
with were drawn forth the glowing emberS in
which we saw our first fances and dreamed
our first dreams-the shove! with which we
stirred the sleepy logs till the sparks rushed
up the chimney as if forge were in blast be-
low, and wished we had so many lambs, so
many marbles, or SO many something's that we
coveted and so it was we wished our first
wishes.
There is chair-a low, rush-botom chair
there is little wheel in the corner, big
wheel in the garret, loom in the chambpr-
There are chests fall of linen and yarn. and
quilts of rare patterns, and samplers in frames.
And everywhere and always the dear old
wTinkled face of her whose firm elastic step
mocks the feeble Saunter of her children'S chill
dren-the old-faShioned grandmother of twenty
years ago. She, the very Providence of the old
homeSead-she who loved US all, and said she
wished there was more of us TO love, and took
all the school in The Hollow for grandchildren
beside. great expansive heart was hers, be-
meath that wooen gown, or that more stately
bombazine, or that sole heirloom of silken tex
ture.
We can see her to-day, those mild blue eyes,
with more of beauty in them than time could
touch or death do more than hide--thosr eyes
that held both smiles and tears within the faint
est call of every one OF US, and soft reproof
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 heightened the tether of vine
that was straying over window, as she came
IN, and plucked four-leaved clover for Ellen.
She sits down by the little wheel-a tress is run
ming through her fingers from the distaf's dish
egeled head, when a small voice cries, ssGrand-
ma" from the old red cradle, and s'Grandma !"
Gently she lets go the thread, for her patience
is almost as beautiful as her charity, and she
touches the little red bark in moment, till the
young voyager is in dream again, and then
directs Tommy's unavailing attempts 10 har-
Ness the cat. The tick Of the clock runs faint
and low; and she opens the mysterious door and
proceeds TO wind it up. We are all on tip-top,
and we Deg in breath to be lifted up one by
one, and look in the hundreth time upon the
TN cases ofthe weights, and the poor lonely pen
dulum, which goes TO and fro by its little dim
window, and never comes out in the world, and
our petitions are all granted, and we are lifted
up, and we all touch with finger the wonder
iul weights, and the music of the little wheel is
Resumed.
Was Mary to be married, orJane TO be wrap
ped in shroud' So meekly did she fold the
white hands of the one upon her still bosom,
that there seemed to be prayer in them there
and 50 sweetly did she wreaihe the white rose
IN t6e hair of the other, that one would not
have wondered had more roses budded for COM
pany-
How she stood between US and apprehended
harm! how the rudest of us softened beneath
the gentle pressure OF her faded and tremulous
hand From her capacious pocket that hand
was never withdrawn closed, only to be opened
IN our own, with the nuts she had gathered, the
cherries she had pucked, the little eggs she had
found, the 'qurn-over" she had baked. the trim
ket she had purchased for us as the prodnct Of
her spinning, the blessings she had stored for US
the offspring Of her heart
What treasure OF story fell from those old lips
of good fairies and evil, of the old times when
sh" was a girl and we wondered if ever
bot then she could not be handsomer or dearer
but that she ever was 'slittle." And then,
when We begged her 10 sing s'Sing US one Of
the old songs you used to sing mother, grand
MAJ
"Children, can't sing, F" she always said
and mother used to lay her knitting softly down,
and the kitten stopped playing with +he yarn
upon the floor, and the clock licked lower in
t0e corner, and the fire died down to glow,
like an old heart that is neither chilled nor
dead, and grandmother sang. To be sure II
wouldn't do for the parlor and the concert
room days; but then it was the old
kitchen and the old fashioned grandmother and
the old ballad, in the dear old times and we
can hardly see to write for the memory Of
them, though it is hands breadth to the sun
set.
Well she sang. Her voice was feeble and
wavering like fountain just ready to fall, but
then how sweet-ioned il was; and it became
deeper and stronger but it couldn't grow sweet
er What 'joy OF gref'' ii was TO sit, all of Us
except Jane--to sit there around the fire, and
~eepove the woes of the "Babes in the Woods"
who lay down side by side 10 the great solemn
shadows and how strangely glad we felt when
lhe robn-redbreast covered them with leaves ;
and last of all, when the angel took them out of
she night into day eyerastinr