Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1858-12-09
l,he Old RIteEen.

j.
'You will find the old house greatly changed,
cousin Mlliie, when you come to see usin the
fall" wrote Mrs. Rood, the pretty lively wife of
Ia whole half year. ''We're having ali the,
oack part torn down, and we're having q. new
sitting room and new bedroom. and n real.
new fashioned kitchen, and we shall have the
new house heated with furnaces and ali the
nodern improvements. We shall retain the
front because it is built of stone but we're to
have long windows, and a new portico. and fleor
Old grandpa wonld hardly recognizes his old
home, 1t he could set down on his fayorite scat
under the old cherry tree, and see it again. It
does seem so sacriligious to go to tearing down.
and pulling up so soon after his death, but
Harry wants everything ready for winter, SO
we have had to commence at once; and dear
Alillle, you'll lind everything SO new, so nice and
comfortable when you come to see US, that I'ln
IN hopes youiwon't know how to leave us Mt
all 4" Z 3 s ID ~ : \ - = - - -
And Mildred Race closed up the letter of her
ioveiy cousin wltha sigh. and>lcaning back in
through the halls of her heart, that filled her
eyes with tears, those eyes like the eyes of a
spring hlddensi in the deep woods, when the sum
ner moon-shine hutters down in its deep blue
heart. &s5gE 90 = -
II don't mind the rest of the house" mur.
mnred sweet Mildred Race, "but the old kitchen
with its great, old.fashoned fireplace, don't
know how to spare that. 5-
All me! what brave times used to have.
away down in my childhood on these visits to
Grandpa's | can see it all now, Just as though
had been there last night the group gathered
IN IN, the long autumn evenings round the chimney.
Lhere We're the CRATE and irons, with their lions
feet, and their brass tops and the pile of birch
sticks built up almost to the jamb, and all our
aces would glow in the light of the fire, that
beat in the ruddy surf of the black chimney.
9randpa always sat in the corner and his
halr white as the year is when settles in Dc.
cembcr. The great silver-bowed Spectaces res
ted low on his nose as he slowly read the news
paper, and shook his head and said: Things
uldn,t use to go on so when / was young man.
And grandma sat on the other side with one of
the whltest caps aud the.pleasantest smiles, toe.
ing OIL a %oolen stocking and pausing to show
someof her grand children how to count apple
seeds, just as they did at the froics when She
was q girl.
''Ihe frost was atiwork at the windows, mar
vetous and cunning artist that frost was; etch-
ing wlthysient, mysterious fingers all sorts of
landscapes and figures, which we should read in
the morning with as much eager curiosity and
interest, as travellers read this 1ay of old Stones
anu ruined palaces, the hieroglyphcs of Nineyeh
and Egypt There would be suggestions of
wondrouS landscapes, of mountains and valleys
and rivers; of gardens, too, fair as the hanging
gardens of Babylon. There would be Westmin-
lister, Versailles and ST Peters, all done in a
nlng waters and palms OF India and somewhere
in the corners some of US would find the old
barn and long well-pole at grandpa's.
"sOh, rcpeatit, they We're brave times never
to return, round that old Kitchen fire, that hung
in crimson flags over the birch logs, while we
peared apples and counted seeds; and poor Char
lie cracked walnuts-poor Charlie | the stars
look down on his lonely grave in California -
But see him now with the great brick onihis
lap, with, his hammer going crack, crack, but
somehow it didn' disturb one bit the sallies of
fun land outbreaks OF laughter round that tenn
pie.
"And there, was the clock-the clock that be.
4onged to my great great aunt and that ticked
away the lives Of five generations, in one corner
reaching from the floor to the ceiling with the
half moon on its face. What a history, what
biography that old clock was set there in The
kitchen corner; that had watched such bright
hair turned to snow, snch fair young foreheads
grow dark and wrinkled under the burden Of its
years.
"And at last, when the hour hand crept up
to nlne,. grandpa would take his old fashioned
bible, and the laughing eye and merry dimples
sed words once read over his cradle, and that
would soon be read over his grave! And fol-
loving this, came the prayer that seemed to
draw all hearts nearer to the gate of heavenl ~
so when all this was over, grandpa would
take the iron shovel and heap the grey ashes on
tue SloHluSs CoHe Ol uTe just as tne years ncap
the ashes on the glowing hopes and joys Of
youth; and grandma would fold upher stocking,
and stick the needles into the ball Of yarn and
say
Come, children, it is time for honest people
to go abed.'
'.And going back there shall miss them all;
grandma's white cap, and grandpa's silver hair,
and the cluster of bright young faces round the
FIRE in the autumn evening; but if they hadn't
torn down the kitchen, could have gone and
sat by the birch FIRE and dreamed my old dreams
and brought them all back tome; but now its
all gonc-all gone-eyen the old kitchen and
fire place!" and Mildred Race bowed her head
onher hands and wept.
"rhe old kitchen fireside!" theircside where
our grandfathers read, and our grandmothers
knit arc growing less throughout the land
Grim ghouls, in the shape Of stoves and furna-
ces, are everywhere taking theiraplaces, and the
reign of andirons and birch wood fires is grow
ing less every year.
Yet blessed be the old kitchen and mantletree
and jamb! and blessed, too, the dreams that
were builded out OF. those old brentwood fires
fair palaces and pleasant gardens and that all
beautiful country, the Future and which have
all turned, like an old kitchen fire, to ashes!