Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1859-03-19
NJ | S c f L L A N Y.
LIzzY GRlSWOLD'S THANKSGIVING.

From the Atlantic Monthly Magazine for March-by
Rose Terry.l
so John ant a-comin', Miss Grisld squeak
ed Polly Mariner, entering the great kitchen,
where Mrs Griswod was pairing apples and
Lzzy straining squash.
Isn't he? quietly replied the lady addressed,
as the tailoress sat down in the flag g-bottomed
cooking chair, and began rocking yehemently,
all the time eyeing Lizzy from the depths of
her poke bonnet with patient scrutiny.
NO, he aint,-so Mr. Gris'ld says went on
Polly. You see, l was comm up here from
the Center, SOS to see if Sam couldn't wait for
his roundabout till arter Thanksgivin'; for Ke-
zah Perkins, she twas my sisters husbands
fust wife's darter, N finally married sisters fust
husbands son, she's real likely woman, and
she's wrote over from Taunton to ask me to go
there to Thanksgivin'; N to-day's Monday ;
m l was a-comin' here Tuesday SOS to make
Sans roundabout N yesterday Miss Luken's
boy Simon he faint but three year old, he got
my press board, when he was a-crawln' round,
m laid it right onto the cookin' stove, and fust
thing Miss Lukens know'd it blazed right up,
m / can't get another fixed afore Wednesday,
and then I'd ought to be to Taunton, cause
there aint no stage runs Thursday, and there
hadn't oughter, of course'-
we have got a press board said Mrs Girls
wold, quietly.
Yes, and aint goin' to grandfather's in my
old jacket, Miss Poll interposed Sam, one of
the terrible children who are scattered here
and there through this world. Catch me where
all the folks are, in that old butternut suit =
added Sam.
But here his father stepped in at the door,
fine, sturdy, handsome farmer, one of New
England's model men, whose honesty was n
proverb, and whose goodness reliance to eve
ry creature in Greenfield.
John isn't coming, wife, said Mr. Griswold,
in steady, sober tone. He says business will
delay him, so that he can only get to Coventry
just as we do
so you had letter. said Mrs Griswold,
carefully avoiding a look at Lizzy.
'Yes,' said Mr. Griswold in very abrupt way.
| Are you ready to go back, Miss Pollyp for I've
got to 60 down to the Center again with a load
of wheat
We'll, yes, l don't know but be. Iken stay
over, if you want help, Miss Grisld. I'm
a-goin' to the minister's tchelp Miss Fletcher
little mite this afternoon, but guess she don't
lot on it none m seein' it's you, ken stay, if
you want help
Lizzy looked quickly across the kitchen at
her mother.
oh no, thank you, Miss Polly, know Mrs
Fletcher would feel very badly to lose your
help, and l really don't need it until to-mor-
row.
Then I'll come round to the door as quick as
I've loaded up said Mr. Griswold; and Miss
Polly settled back in her chair to wait comfort
ably; a process much intensified by large
piece of Mrs Griswold's gingerbread and glass
of new cider, both brought her by Lizzie's hos
pitable hands,-readier even than usual Just
now, in the vain hope of stopping Polly Mari
| a. Rot
bread nor cider was specific to that end Pol
ly talked while she ate, and ate while she talked
But while she finishes her luncheon, let us make
known to the patient reader whom and what the
taioress discusses.
John Boynton was q step-cousin to Lizzy
Griswold's Her youngest aunt had married a
widower, with one son, some five years older
than Lizzy, and had always lived in the old
homestead at Coventry, with her father while
the other daughters and sons, six in number,
were scattered over the State, returning once a
year, at Thanksgiving, to visit their birthplace,
and bring their children into acquaintance with
each other. Eben Griswold, who lived at
Greenfield, was nearer home than any of the
others, and Lizzy, consequently, oftener at her
grandfather's house than her cousins. She and
John Boynton were playmates from childhood,
and it was not strange that John, who had nev-
er known pleasure unshared by Lizzy, or suf-
tered pain without her consolation, should
grow up in the idea that he could not possibly
live without her, an idea also entertained half
consciously by Miss Lizzy, though neither OF
them ever yet had expressed III for John was
poor, and had no home to offer any woman,
much less the petted child of rich farmer. So
Mr. Boynton, Jr., left home to teach school in
Roxbury, five years before the date of our story,
without making any condolences on the subject
of his hopes and fears to Miss Griswold and
she knit him stockings and hemmed pocket
handkerchiefs for him with the most cold-blood-
ed perseverance, and nobody but the yarn and
the needles knew whether she dropped any tears
on them or not.
Now it had always been John Boynton's Gus.
tom to give his school Thanksgiving week as q
vacation,-to take the train on Monday foi
Greenfield, and stay there till Wednesday, when
the whole family set off together for Coventry
to spend the next day, according to time-honor'
ed precedent.
| Whatever John and Lizzy did in those two