The Council Bluffs nonpareil. [volume] (Council Bluffs [Iowa]) 1857-1867, 1858-11-20
THE OLD KITCHEN,

'You will find the old house greatly chang
ed, Cousin Millie, when you come to see us
in the fall,' wrote Mrs. Rood, the pretty
lively little wife of n whole half YEAR.
'We're having all the back part torn down,
and we're having new sitting room and u
bedroom, and a real new fashioned kitchen
and we shall have the house heated with
furnaces, and all the modern improvements.
We shall retain the front because its built
of stone, but we're to have long windows,
and new portico; and dear old grandpa
would hardly recognize his old home, if he
could SIT down on his favorte seat under
the old cherry tree and see it again. 1t
does seem so sacrilegious 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 Mllie, you'll find everything
so new, so nice and comfortable when you
come to see US, that Pm in hopes you won't
know how to leave us at ALL
And Mildred Race closed up the letter of
her lively cousin with sigh, and leaning
back in her chair, old memories came
thronging up through the halls of her heart,
that filled her eyes with tears, those eyes
like the eyes of a spring hidden in the deep
woods, when the summer noon shine futters
down in its deep blue heart.
Il don't mind the rest of the house, mur
mured sweet Mildred Race, 'but the old
kitchen, with its great, oldfaShioned fire.
place, don't know how to spare that.
'Ah 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 the long autumn evenings
round the chimney. There were the crate
and Irons, with their lions feet, und their
brass tops and the pile of birch sticks built
up almost to the jamb, and all our faces
would glow in the light Of the fire, that beat
in ruddy surf up the black chimney.
'Grandpa always sat in the corner, and
his hair white rs the year is when it settles
in December. The great silver bowed spec
tacles rested low on his nose rs he slowly
read the newspaper, and shook his head and
said: Things didn't used to 90 on so when
was young man. And grandma sat on
the other side with one of the whitcst caps
and the pleasantest smiles, tocing off n
woolen stocking and pauslEg to show some
Of her grand children how to count apple
seeds, just as they did at the frolics when
she was 4 girl.
The frost was at work Mt the windows.
marvellous and cunning artist that frost was:
etching with silent, mysterious fingers all
sorts of landscapes and figures, which We
should read in the morning with us much
eager curiosity and interest, as travellers
read this day, of old stones and ruined pal
aces, the hieroglyphics Of Nineveh and
Egypt. There would be suggestions of
wondrous landscapes, of mountains and val
leys and rivers; of gardens, too fair as the
hanging gardens of Babylon. There would
be Westminster, Versailles, and St. Peters,
all done in single night; there would be
fountains of running waters and palms Of
India, and somewhere i'll the corners some
of US would find the old barn and long we'll
pole at grandpa's.
'Oh, repeat it, they were brave times
never to return, round that old Kitchen fire,
that hung its crimson flags over the birch
logs, while we pared apples and counted
seeds: and poor Charlie cracked walnuts-
poor Charlie. the stars look down on his
lonely grave in California;. But see him
now with the great brick on his lap, with
his hammer going crack crack, but somehow
it didn't disturb one bit the sallies of fun
and outbreaks of laughter round that tenn
pie.
-Ahd 'H'tf was t"c Hh-'ic o'"Ih 'i''''
belonged to my great great aunt, anu that
tcked away the lives OF hve g"nerauons, IN
one corner. reaching from the floor to the
cnlIlng, with the half moon on ITS lace,
What IA history, what a biography that oid
clock was, set there in the kitchen corner:
that had watched such bright halr turned to
snow, such lar young toreheauS grow oafk
and wrInkled under the burden OF Its years.
And at last, when the hour hand crept up
to ninc, grand would 'ahe his oiu-1ashloh-
cd b'bie, ana the laughing eye ana merry
d!mpies "ouid settle INTO gravity as he
read those blessed words, once READ over
his cradle, ana tnat would soon be read
over his grave! And following this, came
the prayer that seemed to draw all hearts
nearer to the gate OF heaven!
80 when ali TINS was over, grandpa "ou!d
take the IRON shovel ana hcap the gray ash
es on the glowing cone OF lre Just ns the
years he'p the ashcs on 'he s'o"InS nopfiS
IN hrr Stpr KING and stick the needles int O