Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1866-12-19

nicely groomed willow hung In her small
well-darkened, and, as it were, monumental
pIrlor. Her household consisted of herself,
her son, nioeteen years of age. of whom more
hereafter, and two small children, twins, left
upon the doorstep when little more than mere
marsu pial possibilities, taken In for the
night, kept tor a week and always, hereafter,
cherished by the good soul as her own /; alsJ,
OF Miss Susan Posey, aged eighteen, at school
at the Academy 10 another part of the same
town, distant relative, boarding with her,
MAJOR wIrHKRs.
Major Gideon Withers was of the very
common type of hearty, loud ,portly men, who
like to show themselves at militia trainings,
and TO hear themselves shout orders at mus
ters or deolsim patriotic sentiments at town
meetings and in the general court. He loved
to wear a crimson sash and military cap
with large feather, in which the village
folks used to say he looked as handsome a
piny meaning tavorite flower of his,
which is better spelt peony, and to which
it not unnatural that his admirers should
compare him.
Ii be had married wife like himself,
there might probably enough have sprung
from the alliance family of m0on-fscei
children, who would have dropped into their
places like posts into their holes asking no
questions of life, eontented. like SO many other
honest folks, with the part 0. supernumera-
flesh and bones being furnished them gratis,
and nothing to do but walk across the stage
wearing il. But lor Gide) w Ithers, fer
some reason OF other, married slender, sen
sitIve, nervous, romantic woman, which
counted for the !act, that his David,
King David as he was called in his time,
had very different set Of tastes from his
father, showing a turn Tor literature and SEN
timent in his youth, reading Youny's Night
Thoughts and Thompsou's Seasons,' and
sometimes, in those early days, writing verses
himself to Celia or TO Chloe, which sounded
Just fine II him Efhe and Minnie sound
to young people now, Musijor4, Sac
charissa, Lssbia. as Helena, as A1ah snd
Zillah. have all sounded to young people in
| their time-ashes OF roses as they are i
now, and as our endearlng Scotch dimlnutiVe
will be to Others by and by.
| liking David Withers, who got his royal
| prefix partly because he was rich, and partly
| because he wrote hymns occasionally, when be
| grew too old to write love-poems, married the
! famous beauty before mentioned, Miss j Judith
! Pride, aud the race came up again in vigor.
Their son jeremy took for his first wife
| delicate, nelanchollc girl, who matnTed into
a sad-eyed woman, and bore him Two children
| Mslaoni and Silence, both of whom Inherited
her temperament. When she died, he mourn
ed for her bitterly almost year, and then put
on a ruffied shirt and went across the river to
tell his grief to Miss Virginia Wild there
siding. This lady said to have few
drops of genuine aboriginal blood in her veins,
and it is certain that her cheek had a little
of The iusset tinge which eeckel pear shows
on its warinest cheek when it bushes. Love
shuts ITSELF up In sympathy like kniie-blade
in its handle, and opens as easily"
BEAUTIFUL PASSAGE ABOUT AN Old CLOCK.
:" The old clock that Marmaduke Storr
made in London more than hundred years
| ago was clicking the steady puse-beats of
lis second century. The featured moon on
its dial had lifted eye, if to watch
the child, as 1t had watched Sd many gene
rations of children, while the swinging PEN
| dulum ticked them along into YOUTH maturity,
gray hair death beds-tickiug through the
prayer at the iuneral-ticking without grief
through all the still or noisy woe of In )urn-
/ ing-ticking without JOY when the smiles and
gayety of comforted heirs had come back
again.
SUBTLE THOUGHT ON REP EATED PERSONALITY.
:. 1t rs by no means certain that in
dividual personality is the single inhabIsant
Of these our corporal frames. Nay, there
is recorded experience of one of the !iv NJ
persons mentioned 10 this narrative-to 0s
given in full in lis proper piace-whlch, 60
tar as IL Is received IN evidence, tends 10 snow
that some, az least, who have Ing BE- dead,
=
yet self-conscous lie, IN these bodily Icne-
nents which are IN the habit OF consider
ing exclusively our oSa. Id3re ms1y
circumstances, fdmlilar 70 common otservars,
which favor this belief TO a certain extent.
Thus, at one moment We detect the look, at
another some characteristic movement of this
or that ancestor, In our relations or others.
There are times when our friends do not act
like themselves, but apparently in obedience
/ n
proper nature. We all do things both awake
anu asleep which surprise US. Perhaps We
have co-tenants IN this house we live In. No
less than eight distinct personalities are said
TO have co-existed In a sIngl female mention
ed by an ancient pay ysiclan 0t unImpeac1a5!e
authority. In this light we may perhaps see
the meaning OF sentence, from 4 work
which will be repeatedly referred TO in this
narrative, viz: This b)dy in which We J)ur-
ney across the lsthmus between the two
oceans Is not private carriage but an omni-
bus"
+ Prof. Lowell s contribution to thls unber,
Z" Fitz Adams Story" vas wrt1en many
years age, to form part of a larger poem to
be called .'1he Nooning," made up OF tales
in verse, some of them grave, some comic.
This is one of tie % comic" talee. giving a
crcun-stantial history OF the life Of Deacon
Bitters, both here and 8 Down There -
whose piety was all pretence, who dealt in
groceries and New England rum who
used to be famous for making a cJrd Of wood
measure but SIX ieet-it he Was buying it,
e and who came to double grief, the story
runs, by being altogether too sharp in meas
uring a load of birthstone Down There >
wherever that may be. The poem is charac
terIzed by Prof. Lowells keenness of satire
and facility of versihcation.
u Whittier's poem is, of course, delightful
and Mr.. Bryant's translation OF Homer is
: creditable TO its author. Mr.. Parton's ar,i-
. Gle on Mr.. Baecher's Church is well written
and exceedingly entertaining, and gives a
giaphic idea, not only of Mr.. Beecher's earnest
j and successful W yrk, but contrasts it with the
o snowy and luxurious worship of hundreds o
q other temples In New York city. The politi-
cal articles in this number are fJrcible, and
!, ss whole, the Atlantic Tor January open.
tho new year in most promising way.
, Our Young Folks Tor January 6sgios the
l. year in fine style. Mrs. Stowe, Bayard Tay-
!" lor, j. I. Trowbridge, Gail Hamilton, Pro
If Lowell, Ii. W. Longfellow, and writers o
3, less note. though scarcely less popular witt
!, the children, contribute 10 this number. |
;, - II embellIshed with a full length engravIn.
n of Capt Mayne Reid, aud contains inter
nf akatch nf that pnpuiar Their