The Grange advance., 1874-12-29

ana retreats TO her corner. Where Shc
stays until Uncle James has fairly got
at his paper again, when she quietly
slips forward and lays couple Of
lozenges on the table within his
reach. lie is very fond of lozenges;
and by and by, seeing these over the
silver rim of his spectacles, he accident
ally, as it were, lets his hand stray in
th%t direction, and presently one Of
them is popped into his mouth. Now
on one occasion these were pepper
lozenges, the inside of which is like
burning fire, though there is thin lay
er of pure sugar on the outside, which
tastes very we'll until the pepper begins
to come through. SO you may
we'll believe that after few moments of
silent satisfaction, Uncle James rose up
and howlcd, while Grandmother Bright
placidly inquired: ''what's the matter,
James! Have you swallowed q hor.
net = At this, out went Uncle James
and banged the door after him, while
Grandmother Bright laughed heartily
in her arm chair, and said to herself:
DO him good--my lozenges are just the
thing for a hot temper And surs
enough, in half an hour back comes
Uncle James, and says, "Look here
Betsey; was just going by the store,
and thought I'D get you some o that
yarn. You mustn't mind my ways, you
-and-and--look herc--if you
won't give me any more thunder and
lightning candy, I'll give you no hard
words -
II. AUNT P1CKERELL.
Aunt Pickerell was Uncle James
second wife's first husbands sister.
You see Uncle James second wife was
widow when he married her, and her
first husband was a Pickerell, and old
Miss Pickerell had always lived with
them. So when Uncle James took Mrs.
Pickere]l, Miss Pickerell "continued
right along,'' and in that way she had
continued ever since, through the ad-
ministration Of the third wife also; and
now she was an ancient fixture in the
parsonage, as much as the tall clock in
the kitchen, or the big Bible
mn the lamp.stand in the sitting
room. She wasn't a bit like Grand
mother Bright, except that she too
had lost her memory; but then good
part of her wits had gone with it, and
all of her cheerfulness, if she ever had
any. She was always coming into the
conversation with texts of Scripture
the words Of which she retained, with
very little notion of their meaning.
But, as P eople who open the Bible
at random sometimes light upon an
extremely appropriate verse, 50 Aunt
Pickerell's sudden quotations were
now and then awfully adapted to the
occasion, so as to produce general con.
sternation or amusement, according to
circumstances.
Thus when little Mary Ann, who was
a precocious and universally admired
baby, was heard screaming upstairs,
while the family were gathered for
prayers in the sitting room, Aunt Pick.
erell interrupted the reading Of chap
ter from Nehemiah with verse out of
Proverbs: 'Doth not wisdom cry and
understanding put forth her voice!''
And once when a young minister
from the Corners was exchanging with
MIR. Bright, and staying at the parson-
age over Sabbath, she broke in upon a
very learned and edifying discourse Of
his, addressed to Uncle James, with
this scrap of Second Kings: 'Speak to
thy servants in the Syrian language ;
for We underestimate" The young man
stared little, laughed family, and
began to talk about something else.
But he didn't get away from Aunt
Pickerell so easily; for few minutes
| after, when he mentioned that he had
received a call to one of the leading
congregations in Boston, she spoke out
solemenly from the corner. II could
! not, my son, lie down again!' People
could never get quite accustomed to
Aunt Pickerell and her tests. Every
body was rather afraid Of her, except
! Grandmother Bright. It was beautiful
to see the friendship of these two old
ladies. Each one seemed to lay ASIDE
part of her character out of Difference
to each other. Grandmother Bright
never teased Aunt Pickerell, and Aunt
Pickerell never 1eproacted Grandmoth-
er Bright. They called one another by
their first names, Elizabeth and Mehit.
able; and they would sit together by
the hour, gossiping away in the most
amicable and contented manner. They
never had any trouble about subjects !;
for they could 60 over the same ground
! day after day, without being aware that
they had discussed it already. But
! when one of them recalled from the
days of youth any particular topic, the
other, out Of pure sympathy, immedi.
ately seemed to recollect all about it.
So they earened away OF opposite sides
OF the sitting room fireplace, nodding
aniably to one another-Grandmother
Bright less lively and mischevous than
usual, and Aunt Pickerell less solemn
and severe, yet occasionally venturing,
the oHe on text, and the ether on .
joke. Parson Bright once called them