Indiana American. [volume] (Brookville, Ind.) 1865-1872, 1866-10-19

There is an old kitchen !llewherc in
the past, and an old fashioned fireplace
therein, with its smooth old jams of stone;
smooth with many knives that have been
sharpened there; smooth with many little
fingers that have clung there. There are
andirons, with rings in the top, wherein
many temples OF flame have beed builded,
with spires and turrets~of crimson. There
is broad, worn hearth--broad enough
for three generations to cluster on-worn
by feet that have been torn and bleeding
by the way, or been made beautiful, :"
and walked upon floors of tessellated gold.
There are tongs in the corner, wherewith
we grasp a coal, and, "blowing for a little
life lighted our first candle; there is a
shovel, whereeith was drawn forth the
glowing embers, in which We saw our first
fancies and dreamed our first dreams; the
shovel with which we stirred the logs un-
til the sparks rushed up the chimney as if
forge were in blast below, and wished
we had so many lambs, or so many marbles,
or so many something's that we eoveted
and so it was that we wished our first
wishes.
There is a chair-a low, rush bottomed
chair; there is a little wheel in the corner;
big wheel in the garret, loom in the
chamber. There are chestfulls of linen
and yarn, aud quilts of rare patterns and
samples in frames.
And everywhere aud always the dear
old wrinkled face Of her whose firm, elas-
tic stop mocks the feeble saunter Of her
children's children = the old-fashioned
grandmother of twenty years ago. She,
the very Providence of the old homestead;
she who loved US all, aud said she wished
there we're more of us to love, and took all
the school in the hollow for grandchildren
besides. Agreat expansive heart was hers,
beneath that wooden gown, or that more
stately bombazine, or that sole heirloom
of silken texture.
We can see her to-day, those mild blue
eyes, with more of beauty in them than
time could touch, or death could 90 more
than hide-those eyes that held both tears
and smiles within the faintest call of every
one ofus, and soft reproof that seemed not
passion but regret. A white tress has es-
caped from beneath her snowy cap; she
heightened the tether of vine that was
straying over window, as she came in,
and plucked four -leayed clover for Ell
len. She sits down by the little wheel--a
tress is running through her fingers from
the distafi's dishcvelled head, when small
voice cries Grandma from the old red
cradle, and Grandma, Tommy shouts from
the top of the stairs. Gently she lets so
the thread, for her patience is almost as
beautiful as her charity, and she touches
the little red bark amoment, till the young
voyager is in a dream again, and then di-
reefs Tommys unayailing attempts to har-
ness the eat.
The tick of the clock sounds faint and
low, and she opens the mysterious door
and proceeds to wind it mp. We are all
on tip-toc, and we beg in breath to be
lifted up one by one, and look in the hun
dredth time upon the tin cases of the
weights, aud the poor lonely pendulum
which goes to aud fro by its little dim
windows; and our petitions were all grant.
ed and we arc all lifted up, and we all
touch with the finger the wonderful
weights, and the music of the wheel is re.
! sumed.
Was Mary to be married, or Jane to be
wrapped in a shroud? So meekly did she
fold the white hands of the one upon hel
still bosom, that there seemed to be
prayer in them there, and SO sweetly die
she wreathe the white rose in the hair o.
the other, that one would not have won
dered had more roses budded for company
How she stood <ctween US and apprehend
ed harm; how the rudest of US softenet
beneath the gentle pressure of her fadet
and tremulous hand! = From her capaciou
pocket that hand was ever withdraw
closed, only to be opened in our own Will
the nuts she had gathered, with the cher
rios she had plucked, the little egg sh,
had found, the "turn-oyor" she had baked