Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1874-11-27
rNPRESENTABLE RELATIVES


ana Mr. Emu IafuenDerg, merchant, sat
alone in the counting-roOm Of his "whole-
sale and retail dry goods store" lights all
out save the one burner over his desk. Mr..
Hardenberg draws from his pocket mem
orandum hook. The book opens where
two photographs have been placed between
the leaves. one is the picture of an old
woman, with hollow cheeks, lips fallen in,
black eyes sunken, and not as bright as
they may once have been, hair dead black
save for a little space along the parting,
where the dye has either worn off or was
never laid srtisticallyl, hands stifily folded
poor, worn old hands The second pho
tograph is of an old mau, a very thin old
man, with peaked chin, and a nose COM
ing far down to meet his chin, his thin,
light hair falling loosely around his ears,
and lying in straggly ends upon his coat
collar, his eyes faded and watery, and o,
the lines and The lines upon his face
Here is letter directed in fine tremu-
lous hand. The ink has been frozen. All
ink must freeze up in New Hampshire
whence this letter comes. Thus it reads:
MY DEAR Son ELfHU We have been
looking for letter from you for this long
time, but | suppose you are too busy 10
write. So far it has been a cold winter and
hard for old folks. Your fathers rheuma-
tsm is much worse. 1t is icy between the
house and barn, and he slipped down one
day last week, and hurt himself badly.
We have tried to get a boy to do the chores
but can't find one. The murran has got
among the sheep, and your father is dread
fully worried about the cattle, ana thinks
the laV won't last fill gnrinu I
think it is right nor proper for us, old and
broken as We are, to stay here. Father and
went down to the village last Thanksgiy-
ing and had our pictures taken. / send
them to you.
Your atfectionate mother.
ALMIRA HARDESBERg.
A. lie reads, the two little perpendicular
lines between Mr.. Hardeuberg's eyes
deepen. Uuquestionably, the place for
them is in my family" says be and scowls.
The conclusion drew hard. What would
his wife, Cornelia, Mrs. Hardenberg, say
10 his bringing home his father and moth
er? Mrs. Hardsuberg was a lady " no had
subjected her soul to the refining process
until she had reduced it to very point, in
deed. Mrs. Hardeuberg wasn't an inhu-
name woman; had she been upon the road
TO Jericho the afternoon that man fell a
mong thieves, nothing would have induc-
ed her to pass by on the other side, unless,
indeed the wounds had been offensive. and
the groans distressing. She simply want
ed place for everything, and everything
in its place. She wanted the places in her
own vicinity vanished, polished, silded,
and ornamented, and she wanted the OBJ
jecs that fitted into those places hlrmoni-
Gus, highly-wrought and recherche. As a
matter Of duty, she had been up to that
cold, dolorOus place in New Hampshire, a
half dc zen times in the course OF her mar
red life, and though the air was pure, the
water clear, the milk sweet, it was relief
To- get home again; for what are rivers Of
honey and milk in a land where the inhab.
itants eat with steel forks aud falten their
GUS.
But Mr.. Hardenberg didn't much care
what Mrs. Hardenberg might say. Not
that E.ihu was an iuconsiderate husband.
bat Mrs. II. had so periinaciously insisted
upon her preferences in affairs where her
dictates could not be followed, as to have
lost influence where her word ought to have
been weighty. For the opinions and feel
lngs of Miss Eloise Harden berg. Ia grrnde
damsel, the light Of his eyes and he pride
Of his heart, Mr.. Hardenberg had greater
regard. Eloise was proud aud punctilious.
E.ihu himself sometimes made mislake e.,
tr.fling mistakes they seemed to him, but
they caused Elose infinite annoyance.
How would she bear his mothers shril
voice and strong idiomatic expressions, his
fathers fluttsred, old fashioned ways?
He saw his mother with the immortal
black cape over her shoulders, marching
into the parlor where the Gershons and the
McIntoshes were calling. He saw his IA
ther arching his hand around his ear and
saying: "a leetle louder, sir" to Angus
tus Appollouius, Elolse's special ad-
mirer. Mr.. Hardenberg was weak at a
point where many otherwise strong men
are weak he couldn't bear ridcule. 1t
was perplexing. He took up the photo
graphs again. Then he remembered many
a night of sickness, when those shriveled
hands had tenderly ministered to his wants
and those sunken eyes had watched his
troubled slumbers, many morning when
those shrunken lips had prayed, "God
spare and bless our son !"
"A man must be less than a man to fail
them now" he cried, and seizng a paper
| and pen, he wrote:
Ny DEAR FATHER AND MOTHER: Il au
sorry to hear you are so poorly. l think
| yOu must leave he farm, and come to live
with me. l will be up soon to see about
| dispOsng Of stock, hay, etc, meanwhile, II
fl,her has an opportunity 10 sell anythins
at a reasonable rate, he had better take ad
vantage OF il. Very truly yours,
ELIHU.
He had pressed the blotting paper upor
his sheet, when, seizug his pen, he addeC
this postscript:
shall do everything in my power t
make your situation at my house agreea
bic to you, and hope your declining year;
may he the happiest OF your life.
What people say is very inconsequentia
compared with what they do; therefore
we pass by what Mrs. Hardenberg said
what Eloise said, and bring up against
time after grandma and grandpa had ar
rived, with all their little trunks and BIZ
bandboxes, and Mrs. Hardenberg had be
gun to recover from the severe attack q
neuralgia that came on about the time &
the arrival.
Miss Eloise Hardenberg had assumed a
unexpected attitude in regard to the affail
unexpected, yet, really, one has no sta
BILE ground on which to rear HYPOTHESIS
touching the conduct of proud young Ia
dies of nineteen. Eloise's code of etiquett
was taken from the French first hand; v
olations of it were capital offences, and tn
plea of ignorance no extsnuation. Elois
however, prided herself upon having spil
! il and resources and strength of mind