Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1859-03-11
MISCELLANEOUS.
Farmer Pixies Grandson.
BY VIRGINIA p. TOWNSEND.

well Aunt Esther. what did be say ?
Yes, do tell US, what did he say
.C6usin Alice Lake echoed eagerly my
In ords ,as aunt came into the sitting room
slwhere We were lounging away the pleas
ant summer afternoon.
y see her now, though half SCORE Of
Eyears has the grave dust hidden that
fface from the sight, with her soft slow
step; with her lilac colored silk shawl.
and her Leghorn bonnet, trimmed with
white satin ribbon. Aunt Esther Lee
was ous Fathers only sister, and she
had been childless widow for many
years. the latter half of which she had
passed at our home.
4 Cousin Alice Lake was passing the va
cation with us. There was not a year $
difference in our ages, and we had been
school-mates from early childhood, and
believe sisters seldom love each other
as we did,
That afternoon Aunt Esther had start
ed out on visit to Farmer Pixies, the
rich old widower, whose great yellow
brown house stood on the turnpike halt
mile from our house. lc
Farmer Pike was strange. hard man;
you would haye felt this. with one glance
at his strong vugged features, his iron
gray hair, and his large muscular person
that had not bowed itself with the weight
Of three.score years.
He lived with his housckeeper. and
his hired men. in the great yellow brown
house, an honest, industrious man, but
without a single affection, social sympa-
thy, in the world; with a life as cold
and stark, and barren. as a desert over
whose hosom no running spring winds
its necklace Of jewels; in whose dry dead
heart no sweet flower opens its soft lips
to the sunshine.
But Farmer Pixies life haa its TRACE
dy. so believe all lives have,if we could
only unlock the hidden cabinets, where
they are laid away from every eye but
Gods.
Many years ago, Farmer Pike had
married woman much younger than
himself. 4 woman with one of those
gentle, shrinking, mimosa natures, that
seemed to have few points of sympathy
with his coarse. rugged character.
However, believe they got on we'll
together, aud it is probabl, the gentle,
tremulous wife called out whatsoever OF
tenderness there was in the coarser soul
of her husband. At last, son was born
to them, and the delicate mother fell in.
to a decline, and before her boys life
had covered its third year. the grass had
LAID its green covering over the mother
head.
Mrs. Pike and Aunt Esther Lee were
schoolmates and had always been friends
so the former placed joseph under her
carr, and he continued to reside with her
until At my mothers death, which oc
Cured several years later, my aunt came
to Us and the ooy went home to his
father.
Joseph was warm-heartel but terri
bly, saif-wi!led boy, Ny aunt hal more
influence over him than any other person
for she loved him almost as though he
were her own child. | believe, 100. Far,
mer Pike was very fond OF his bright
handsome boy. but he was a cold, un.
demons,ratve man, ard he and Joseph
never got on well together.
As the boy grew older his father de-
termined upon making him farmer
But Joseph's active, energetic nature re-
volted at this life; he was bent upon GO
ing out into the world, and trying his
Art | 81 Dij Ia,
brown house witnessed some terrible con
tests between the fathers will. aud the
son $ determination; there we're harsh
threats on one side and sullen resistance
on the other, until, wotn out with these
things, Joseph made up his mind to
run away and 90 to sea-
lie did this with his usual rash impul-
siveness, and then Farmer Pike in his
wrath, lifted up hi, hand and swore sol
emnly that Joseph should not inherit a
dollar OF his property; that he would new.
er see or speak to him again to the day
OF his death And he kept his word
He lives in the yellow brown house, I
lonely, childless old man. broadening hi.
acres every year, and broadening. too, by
his cold, selfish, unproductI,e life, tht
gulf between him and the kingdom o
Heaven.
One day in the late spring. however
an old man and a little golden haired
child stopped at our house and asked tol
Aunt Esther Lee. Then for the first
time in all these years we heard Of Jo
seph Pike.
Life had been with him "no dance o
roses but long, sharp struggle. H'
had married young and his children hac
been taken from him, and at last hi.
wife had been laid beside them. leaving
hm only the golden haired b. y that stoot
before u.
Joseph inherited the delicate cons.itu-
tioI of his mother, and his health had
failed under all these trials. He had
wandered from place to place with his
motherless boy in search Of new strength
But he failed rapidly, ard at last himself
gave up all hope Of recovery. Then be
wrote to my aunt, the mother of his boy.
hood. as he called her, and bequeathed to
her tenderness his only child. scarcely
four years old. And the old man who
brought him to us was one whom Joseph
had once rescued from drowning, and
who remained with him out of gratitude
to TIE last hour of his lie.
Aunt Esther bowed her head above
those golden curls, and said, while hel