Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1864-12-10
MAGGIE MEALS ALBUM QUILT:
me- And Hoyr ft7yvas Finished.

80 Another Dakeu apple.
"No, thank you, mother, I've finished my
dinner" And the young man, TO rove his
assertion, placed the handle of his knife and
fork side by side on his plate, and rose from
the table.
"WeT, then, if you've finished, want you
to make good fire in the front room. The
girls are coming this afternoon to quilt, and it
won't do 20 have numb fingers. Get the room
warmed up il you can, by one O'Clock, JOSH
an. l declare it's half past twelve now"
and Grandma Neal piled up the plates, and
hurried them into the sink, as if she feared
she might not be able to take quite as many
stitches on the quilt as the girls, who we're to
come at zone o'clock precisely"
"win they get it off this afternoon, moth
err"
"What the quilt2 Oh no, to be sure not.
There's two full half days work to De done
after to-day. But you know deacon Bates
does not start for the west until Monday, SO
we have plenty of time. Let me think.
And Grandma Neal actually paused IN Wlplng
a green-edged platter to hx upon the days
that could best be devoted to the completion
of the Quilt; the everlasting quilt" as Jo-
siah laughingly termed it.
uLet me see, tomorrow is Tuesday, and
can get the ironing done by noon easy
enough, so there's one afternoon for 1t. We'd
nesday is sewing society, and on Friday there's
a temperance lecture. Saturday always brings
hurrying work: so tomorrow and Thursday
must be the days And Josiah, you may in
yite the Young fellows to come in Thursday
evening. if YOU like. The girls will DE glad
Of a little piay, and they have earned il, dear
knows, on that piece of fancy patchwork"
Josiah soon had bright fire blazing on the
parlor hearth; and the good old lady after
hurrying her dishes into the cupboard, and
brushing up the crumbs, was in the act OF
irving on figured alpaca apron, when the
street gate was heard to open and shut with
an unusual clang. In a moment hasty feet
battered up the walk, and the front door
opening, admitted a whole avalanche of mirth
and mischief, in the shape OF dozen bloom
ing girls, of ages ranging from fourteen to
twenty.
How thew laughed and chatteredi How
they trooped TO the "spare bedroom throw
ing off their bOnnets AID capes, and smooth
ing their hair with incredible dispatch; and
then walking out to the quilt, how they scru-
tinized it all about, declaring that here was a
long stitch, and there was an end sticking up,
and certainly Grandma Neal had been at it
in their absence, for they never did such
things of course. sr.l-
And Grandma Neal, putting on her specta-
cIes. assured them that she had not touched
the quilt since they left il the Friday before,
and moreover if she had, il was very imper-
tinent in them to charge their blunders upon
an old woman, who had quilted nineteen
quilts and seven -comfoFtables before they
were born And then with much laughter
and hunting for thimbles and between-needles,
and with sly chances at Josiah, who had come
into the room Ostensibly to see If the fire
burnt, they all sat down industriously to
work.
"Now If our dear Maggie could only look
in upon US all so comfortable sighed Grand
ma Neal, and well she might say "Our dear
Maggie" for truly the absent one, for whose
benefit they were assembled, had been, ever
since the days of her orphaned childhood, the
pride and darling of the whole village
Adopted by her grandparents when but little
more than an infant, had she not also been
adopted by the minister's wife, the doctors
wife, the 'squire's wife, and particularly by a
whole host of farmers wives, who counted
her as one of their own family in sugar
time" in " cherry time" and best of all in
"nutting time ?" Had she not endeared her
self expressly to the old people by her elastic
spirits, and her miraculous knacks of finding
lost spectacles and knitting works. And as
she grew older, did not the children all but
adore her for her inexhaustible fund of sto-
ries, especially Chicken Little = foolish
chicken, who thought the sky was falling be-
cause a rose leaf fell on her tail. As for the
young men, they believed her, without excep-
ton. the most bewitching little compound OF
roundness and rOsiness, and sunshine and
sparkle, that ever dispensed heart-aehe at a
midnight promenade, or ear-aches at husk-
ing frOlic.
Loud. therefore were the lamentations,
when one fine May morning, a young man
from the next yiliage-where il CHANGED that
Maggie had been teaching tall, sturdy
youth, with a well developed head, strong,
willing hands, and hundred acres of unclear-
ed land in Michigan, bore off the maiden, an
unrelhetant prize, to the matrimonial altar,
and against her name was written that most
common sentence in the tablet of New Eng
land memories: "Married and gone west"
In early May, it was just five months ago
that Maggie went from her grandfathers roof,
and the few letters received from her-few,
because at the time of which we write, CON-
munieation between the East and West was
much more difficult than at present-had
given the fullest assurance that she was hap
DIV with the chosen one in the wilderness
home though now and then an undertone of
sadness told that the long beloved friends of
her childhood were still dearly treasured.
But the album quilt All, that was the Sc
cret that was to make Maggie's eyes glisten,
and her heart leap with most exquisite, be-
cause unexpected pleasure.
The quilt was made of various cOlored stars
upon light blue ground, all pieced and DO
mated By Maggie's most intimate girl friends.
The patches were chiefly taken from dresses
and garments which Maggie had often seen
them wearing and in the centre of each, up
on white ground, was inscribed the giver's
name in indelible ink. Very neat in design
and very tasteful in execution was the album
Quilt, that was destined to make sunshine in
Maggie's lOwly cabin in that far away wilder
ness. $50
Grandma Neal had furnished the cotton
and lining, and had it put on fir mes at her
own expense, because, as she sal "it was
more kind o. central than any Otl r" The
truth was, the kind old lady dearly Dved the
prattle of youthful tongues, particularly when
their theme was her fayorite grandcli'id and
counted the labor of getting four or i've sup
pers for a dozen mad-eap girls as nothing in
comparison to the pleasure felt in the en-
ployment
"Hand me that spool, Katy Green" said
one, after an unusually heightened silence of
four minutes, and the shears and chalk line,
please. The pattern is nearly rubbed out"
ayes" said Lottie Wright, I" and here
Josiah has destroyed whole grape leaf, with
his elbow"
cit is not grape leaf, Lottie," answered
pretty Fanny Grant, to whom, as being ac-
knoWledged the genius of the circle, had