The Vermont transcript. [volume] (St. Albans, Vt.) 1864-1870, 1865-01-20

nobody cared to say outright for the
Deacon was a,ctm religious; but he's
dead no w, poor man, and all his good
and i'll deeds are buried with him
He had got to be rather along in
years at the time I am telling Of, aud
couldn't we'll attend to the store; so
he looked about him to get tender.
1t was a long time before he got one
to suit him; but he finally came
across one up Boston way, and
brought him along with him.
1t soon got about among us young
folks, tina. it was VIM. Mordecai, right
from Boston, and real dandy-such
one rs would not find his fellow in
the whole country The first Sunday
he come to meeting, you may be sure
all the girls did their best to show off
Patience Osborne set np half Saturday
night to finish calico gown l must
say it was pretty ono---purple and
white ground work with little vel
low spiig; she had it at the Deacon
And | had it from pretty good author
ity that Fanny Ranciful, the Deacon's
niece, and a church member into the
bargain, trimmed her bonnet with rcd
ribbon, Sunday morning before meet
ing; at any rate, it was new trimmed,
and she didn't 60 to meeting till after
the minister Such a fixing as there
was, you never did see But he didn't
seem to mind it bit. Seems as if |
can almost see him now, setting in the
Deacon's bew, and looking as smart
as the minister himself All young
men in them days didn't look rs smart
as they do now, with their cropped
heads, and dickeys, and stocks, and
what not. must say that William
Mordecai had the handsomest head of
hair-black as a coal YOU know |
always did like dark hair 1t was
done up in a queue behind, as slick as
a glove. His eyes matched the color
exactly and everybody said he was
complete beauty. Then his black
coat and small clothes, and silk stock
ings, and silver shoe and knee buck
lesah these were what sat young
man off to advantage But for all his
own dress he didn't seem to mind it
bit in other folks"
Eyes, Miss Patty" interrupted I,
again forgetting myself
He Thought sac much o his ain dear sci'
He had nae glance TO spare for YOU.
don't understand your Irish, - con
timed she, quite yexed, "but we all
felt kind Of delighted somehow. But
they that went to the store said he
was such a gentleman, and so different
from the Deacon, and that his name
was Mordecai, he wasn't much like the
Bible one, for the Boston tender had n
bow and a word for everybody. At
this we all took nightly to racing
there, and the old man declared he
hadn't sold so much 'head- gear in
the whole twenty years he'd kept, as
he did the first three weeks that he
had the dressy Boston chap:
The third Sunday / caught his eye;
and a pretty one it was too-black as
mink and bright as dollar, He
saw me; and the next Sunday caught
something very ominous of sleeps
eye. I blushed and looked down, and
then looked at him again, and l was
almost sure that he wiuked. He got
acquainted with the neighboring girls,
and me among the rest All the
1ipernie young men wished him in
the bottom Of the Red Sea, and ell the
Tipernie girls wished they could catch
him. But if they hated him, they
were sure to follow the fashions he
set. He wore ring on his little fin
ger once to meeting and the next
week a peddler came along, and when
he left the town, he hadn'ta ring left
gold, brass nor steel The deacon
trusted him with all his concerns. He
could reason the old gentleman almost
out of his very soul in religious dis
putes, for he was a Universalist and
as for politics, he could talk Squire
Meddlesome all to nothing, for all he
took the papers. He was as bold as d
lion and | always reckoned that
boldness was above half IN an argu-
ment. He was at the head of all the
balls and parties and the Tpernie
fellows were all as st1l as frogs in dog
days where he was. He used to tell
us all about Boston, and what II hand
some house his father lived in, and
how rich he was, and that he only
tended store for the sake of passing
away the time; and to cap the whole,
he had eat dinner with the governor
one election day and knew the WAY