Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1874-06-12
The Leisure Hour.
TAKEN IT MS WORD.



"Thcrc, GOT! said Sand don't care il
| never see you again =
am almost an old man now, with my
grey hairs and my rheumatism, and an OBJ
lection to diauGhts; 50 old that wear my
rubbcrs in dry, cold weather, aud don't
take of 4 comforter before May, and don't
go out aflcr dew-fall in the summer, and
don't keep track Of the last engagement, and
don't think much about the church socia-
bles and whom ! shall take to lecture.
You can think how old that must be !
| But old as | am, remember just how |
| said these words where the accent fell /;
how they sounded; how the wind caught
them and blew them round the corners of
the house and how they seemed 10 come
around and knock on the windows, 10 bc
| let in again, after | had shut the door.
Nothing has happened tn me in all my life
since they were spoken that Ia, helped me
| in the least To make me forget them.
| II may be only an old mans notion, but
sometimes l am forced Ia wonder il any
thing will happen in the next life that can
make me forget them.
girls and boys il is no fun 10 my mind, to
carry thing on into it that you want to
forget and cant forget. Aud we all know
how drCary anything is WHEN there's mo
fun" in it.
There was fun enough in what have &c
tell, at the first of il. At least Trollt
thought So, l suppose. rrOllo was NY
brother. lie was little chap eight years
old. | was fourteen. They had all gone
off and left Us alone in the house, and Troll
10 had plagued me hall out of my senses
That's the way, you know, it SCENE to me
1t seemed TO him quite different, I've NJ
doubt.
This Is how il happened.
NV sister Mary lived in New Haven
That was fifteen miles away. Mays hus'
band had got into some trouble about mon
ey, and father thought he would go and SCI
about il; and Mary's baby was sick will
something or other, and mother though
she would 90 too aud see about that
Mary's husband was always getting int
trouble about money, and Mary's baby wa
always getting sick but they didn't oftol
come on poor Mary together. At any rate
father and mother thought they would g
on, and ns they would be gone only owe
the second night, and because / was four
teen years old, aud because Trollo said b
would bc good, and because Kczah Phipp
said she would come over aud edo" for u'
and stay nights, unless "the old man sc
his back up"-and because, ON the whole
we didn't very much care, but thought
would be rather nice, and that if KeZia
' Phlpps' old man should, by any providen
tial accident, "gel his back up we woul
make molasses corn-bals with vanilla
= them,-we were left alone.
II was dark and cloudy the day the
went away. Mother said she was afraid
y was blowing up for a storm; but fath'
. said he thought not. Aud told me TO !
sure aud not let the fire 20 out, nor the pie
go hungry, noI the horse go unblanketed
and mother kissed us boih-but she kissC
y Trollo twice-and told me TO take goo
care OF Trollo, and let the cat sit by Il
fire and then the stage rat He'd away vii
them, and Trollo and stood looking afi
IL.
"I wish they'd come back Tomorrow
don't you IIerod ~ said TrollO.
My name was Hurdley. But Trollo use
to call me Herod, just to see what l won
l. say and when he found didn't say an
thing, he called me so because he had 6
! into the way of calling me so; didn