The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-11-23
SELECTED STORY.
Grandpapa's Story.
A THANKSGIVING EPISODE.

house at Eastwood. Dinah and Sally were
carrying out the remnants of the feast With
regretfui eyes the children watched its disap-
pearance. They had tried all the traditonary
rules, had sstood up" dumped three jumps"
"walked four times round the table," and
positively not another morsel could they
swallow. And yet there was something sad
in letting those bonnes bouches-those de-
lightful halves, and quarters, and triangles OF
mince, and apple and pumpkin-disappear
and be lost forever. The Thanksgiving Din
ner for that year had become part of the
past; and can tell you Grandmama Aliens
pe-crust was not thing of every day.
From the great turkey stuffed with oysters,
which inaugurated the meal, to the tartlets of
ruby cranberry, which brought it to close,
everything had that dainty, savory perfection
of flavor which appertained to those fast-van-
ishing days of wide-mouthed fire-places,
heaped with cracking logs, and s'bake-ovens"
whose depths entombed whole regiments of
leaves and pastes, and returned them in the
fullnass of time brown, delicate, and perfect
fragrant resurrection. Alas! the aroma of
those old-iashioned viands is almost a tradi-
tionary thing to these days of "modern i'm
provements." Here and there it fingers in
the far recesses of New England, and at
Grandma Aliens it would linger always. No
range dsfigured her kitchen. A ''water-
back was thing unknown. The simple
fireplace wore its ancient livery of cranes,
pot-hooks and roasting-jacks; and over all,
King Hickory, jolliest of monarchs, presided
royalty. Under his sway what unimaginable
Gates came to perfection! What fiavorous
roasts! what tempting baked beansl what
toothsome hoe-cakes! what Indian puddings!
/ forbear. That was indeed the Golden Age
of cookery. F6 ES At
sFour generations were represented in the
circle that now drew around the cheerful
blaze in the MISREPRESENTATION grand
papa, with his silver head, to Baby May, fast
asleep in the arms of her fair young mother,
his eldest grandchild. There were the five
sons and daughters, with their respective
wives and husbands, and their twenty-four
children, to say nothing of Baby May and her
proud young father, or little Nell on grand
pas knee-the orphan child of that youngest
son whose loss was the one heavy shadow on
this happy home. But tonight no shadow
was visible. The Pickering fire-light fell only
upon faces at their brightest, whether in the
bloom of childhood or the comely serenity of
middle life; on bright eyes and lips, on kindly
smiles and looks. All shone with the cheer
full humor of the anniversary. The children
were brimful of fun and turkey; the parents
renewing their own childhood for an evening.
And there, in the shadow of the curtains,
whittier Harry and Edith had betaken them
selves, a little drama was going on-a fantasia,
born of the season-which, if guess might
be hazarded, would ripen, amidst other ami
versaries, into the earnest purpose Of a life
time.
''Dranpa, tell us tory" demanded one of
the little ones as night drew on.
''Good for you, Totr exclaimed her broth
sOh yes, grandpapa! grandpa tells such
nice storiesP' chorussd the others; while
little Nell, putting her soft hand to the
wrinkled check, Joined in with the please
which she so often Hau found Irresistible.
Now-this tory of grandpas was one of
the features of the Eastwood Thanksgiving
1t used to be Cinderella and "Jack the
Giant-killer" formerly, when the little people
were still less; and nowadays it was astirring
tale to please the boys, or some German le-
gend adapted to the occasion. Last year it
was the adventures of drummer-boy and
his dog at Antietam. And now, as grandpapa
settled Nell in a more comfortable position
on his lap and gave preparatory "Hem p
the whole party, old and young, clustered a
little nearer, and prepared to be attentive.
There was sly twinkle in grandpa's eyes
as he began:
''This time, children, am going to tell you
love story,
Ocdi ulC! odiu buc duutleS 10 each OGu-
er; while Hal in the window, possessing him
self of pretty Edith's hand, gave it pressure
which brought the bright blush to her fair
young cheeks.
Yes love story. Once upon time-say
hundred years ago, or Observation-Disclosures
was young man whose name was Tom, and
he lived in New York He was rather
lonely young man, for he had no home, and
had lodgings which wer. not very nice: but
he minded it less because he had never known
what home was and besides, he was very
busy all the time"
"What was he busy at?' shouted Jack,
who was famous for asking questions.
He was clerk in great wholesale ware
house,
WHAT did they sell Pr
NOW, Jack, you mustn't keep interrupts
ing" cried the other children.
'sThey sold machinery, Jack, and farmers
tools-plows and harrows and such like-and
all sorts of inveltion and patents: what are
known nowadays as Yankee notions"
"Why that's just like Clarke & Amber"
cried Jack but somebody hlshed him 10.
Grandpa only laughed. Clarke & Amber
were the successors OF the house in which all
his money had been made.
Gas said before, he was very busy; for
though business was ON = smaller scale then
that line, aud there was great deal to do
and by working hard he had laid up some
money, and, what was better, earned the
good will and confidence of his employers.
There was some talk of his becoming junior
partner in a year or two; and altogether he
felt the world was going smoothly with him.
HE hadn't many relations, this young
man. His parents were dead, and he had no
aunts nor uncles. There was a first cousin OF
his fathers living in New England; but be
had never seen him Or any of his family. But
just at this time his two daughters came to
town to make visit to a friend"
"What were their names, grandpapa p"
asked little Nell, in her soft voice.
well, pet, we'll name one of them Edith
and the other Ellen. They always called each
other Ditto and Nelly Edith was the
prettiest. She had long light hair and blue
eyes and fair skin, and altogether was just
about the sort of girl young fellows picture
themselves falling in love with some day.
And, assure you, the young allow I'm tell
ing you about did so the very Fl rst lime he
saw her."
Sand was Nelly prett, ,oo?n a.ke 4 the
Nelly on grandpapa's knee.
"Wel," continued grandpa, in a consider
ing tone, mot exactly. She had brown hair
and eyes, and trim little figure, and looked
altogether good and honest and sweet. Still,
guess most young men would have given
her sister ten aglances where they gave her
one. At all events, my young man did; for
he looked at Dittie all the time, and hardly
saw Nellie at all.
Inere were not many places of amuse-
nenS In those days, but such as they were,
tney seemed very brilliant to these country
gris' VINO mad never been in the city before.
Anu you rarely see q cousin so polite as Cons
in Tom-so ready to devote all his snare time
to taking them TO this place and that place.
and hunting up shows and entertainments tor
them. They wrote home to their father how
kind he had been; their letters wera full of
him; and in return papa wrote and sent his
regards, and Cousin Tom must surely com, mo
and spend Thanksgiving with them in New
Hampshire. You NAV be sure Cousin Tom
was ready enough to accept the invitation, for
he had never seen girls SO pretty or SO nice
before; and by this time had quite made up
his mind to fall in love With his cousin
Edith.
ut was all arranged. The young ladies
went home late in October, and the day be-
lore thanksgiving, if nothing prevented,
Tom was to present himself in--, the
place they lived at in New HAMPSHIRE.
Jack. Poi
suppose we call it Westfield." replied
grandpa, with twinkle. Gas IL hammered.
TINS young clerks employer had some busi-
ness 10 DC transacted in the town of Elgin-
only twelve miles from Westfield-apd as
Tom was going SO near, he decided to en-
trust It to MN, only, as it unluckiy happen
cd, this business must be attended to the
Monday before Thanksgiving. " '