The Portage County Democrat. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1859-03-30
for tgf 9onlle Girele.
The Merchant and the Miller.
TALE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
BIZ VIRGINIA F. TOWNSEND.

Have you ever sat- reader, when the au-
tumn evenings were growing cool and long.
by some glowing birch wood ire in an old
farm kitchen, among the mountains of New
Hampshire-those grand old drudical moun-
tains, about which the summer streams hang
their silver necklaces and over which the win
ter 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 rat
ratified against the panes. have you listened
to the story of some old settler whose MEM
DRY reached back to the time when the bear
and the wolf came down into the field; and
sometimes of an autumn morning the little
children would go softly through the woods
TO school, almost expecting to see pair Of
wild glaring eyes among the bushes and wbis
pered how they had heard the night before of
some neighbor's sheep cot which had been
broken into. aud the blood dangled grass had
told the story next day -
Well, listening to just such tales, in the au-
tumn evenings, we dreamed among those gray
Eold mountains. the story we are about to tell
you. ~ a..-fa
Il guess we shall have real warm day of
it to morrow, said the widow Pease as she
stood moment in the kitchen door of the old
farmhouse at the close of an April day. some
two score and half years ago, just as the SUP
was resting on the tops of the mountains that
bounded the horizon. Sixty years observa
1 tion of the wind and clouds made Mrs. Pease
kind of weather oracle in the village, and
the good woman prided herself no little upon
her elemental foresight -
WELL Lefty, she continued, as she closed
the door, and returned to her knitting and
her chair by the fire place; guess it will be
first rate day to boil the sap. Til tell
Enoch and Cyrus to pile up the boughs to-
night. and hang on the kittle, so that you can
have it all ready in the mornin' You know
they said the trees were runnin' briskly to day,
and they'd have two tubs full afore night
They didn't though, mother r said Lefty,
pansing moment in her work, for she was
f setting the supper table. 'Goody I'm SO glad
for do love to have sap boilin'.'
Lefty Pease was the child of her mothers
! old age, and daintier bit of natures handi-
e work you have seldom looked upon. The
next summer would count her twentieth, and
5 her blue eyes were clear and bright as her
0 New Hampshire skies, and the mountain
winds had kindled ruddy glow in her fair
cheeks She was rather short, but straight
r with a finely y-curved figure, and as plump as
health and hearty appetite could make her
For her character-she was right dowr
ii good hearted, light-spirited New England girl
That pretty little head of hers had been slight
l. Iy turned by the fattery that sundry swain
Y had poured into it; but considering that sh'
20 was the handsomest girl in the village, aIt
5 knew it too, Lefty conducted herself remarka
1t bly, well. And perhaps, after all. it was no
her fair face as much as it was the smiles tina
m broke up from the warm fountains of her ma
ture, and always dimpled it. that won SO man
i. hearts towards her. She was not sentiment
,e al or inclined to the blues Alas. the dam
o, sci of fifty years ago had not so intimate a
Il acquaintance with these matters as their de
scendants.
But now, reader. in order to do full per
nance for this latter remark. we just admit tbs
bis for one, we don't believe our grandmother
q weresapy better than we are-not a.bitI
Us Nicer pies and puddings they could indi
tn putably make. thrifty housekeepers. faithf
er wives and loving mothers they surely wer
and for these things blessed be their memor
1t But, after all, spinning wheels alone cannt
x enlarge ones 7sympathies, or daily darnin
its stockings enrich ones intellect; and instn,
and habit narrowed down to the circle of the
own families the views and feelings of Il
I, last century. go s
, a And the true woman of the present tin
he has broader social sympathies and richer lif
nd and although she must acknowledge that h
first duties are in her home, she will not thir
en- they end there. as her grandmother did,
ilh knowledge that is true TO itself expands Il
II moral as well as the intellectual life; and Il
.aF world hasn't gone backward with the substit
ore ton Of botany for butter churns, and math
lie, matics for milking pals. Z u
rer But to return to our heroine. When Emo
and Cyrus, two tall, sun Drowned, but fin