Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1875-05-07
For the VERMONT FARMER.
SENDING VALENTINES,
How Sally the Sinner got her Nickname
BY F. b. GAGE.

Mechanics are certainly New England
institution, whatever they may be else.
where. In some localities nearly all the
people are nicknamed. There is a grea
deal of the spice of human nature in nick
names, for they often indicate some striking
characteristic of the person bearing them
They are not only exceedingly interesting in
the localities where the parties reside, but
they arc spicy in q romance and rich in
pointing a moral and adjoining tale.
In prosperous town in the Granite State
on the banks of the Connecticut was little
ncighborhood of perhaps dozen dwellings,
anil, and two or three small manulacto-
ries. These industries drew IN Just enough
people to make it quite lively little neigh
borhood. 1t was a great place for fun, frolic,
and country gossip where everybody was
expected to know everybody's else business
even better than their own.
Simon the Older owned the mill and one
of the factories. He was widower about
fifty years old His wife had been dead
some two or three years. Therefore it was
very proper for him to be seeking another.
Simon the Younger, his son, was in his
twenty-second year. Simon the Younger
was queer stick. lie was comical to the
last degree, and inexpressibly droll IN all he
said and did He was quite literary char
acter with decided taste for writing poet
ny. But nicknaming people was his hobby.
There was scarcely n person within five
miles of where he lived that he had not
nicknamed. And the nicknames he bestow-
ed were invariably remembered and repeat
ed. They were always coupled with some
circumstance that caused tn EN- to stick to
the persons receiving them.
He had named his father Simon the Older
and himself Simon the Younger His ia
theirs housekeeper, an old maid OF forty, was
Martha the Match Maker. His youngest
sister was Della the Darling, Rob the Red
Head being Delia's beau. His youngest
brother, Ben, bright eyed little chap, was
Cyrus the CIPHER. Sarah and Harriet Liv-
ermore, daughters of near neighbor, were
Percis the Princess and Josie the joyful.
Their minister was Perez the Preacher, and
SO on through the whole neighborhood to the
end of the chapter.
Dea. Augustus Severance lived on the hill
mile from the factory. Sally Severance,
his daughter, was about thirty years of age.
She was at that time employed in factory
in Rhode Island. She had some literary
taste and was great admirer of poetry.
Happening one day to take up literary pa
per published in Boston, she saw one of ST.
mon the Younger's poems in it. She had
never seen its author, but she had heard of
him through her brother Rob the Red Head
who worked in Simon the Older's factory
The poem happened to strike her fancy, and
it being valentine time she sent him one.
OF course he received it. 1t was a very
tender, sentimental mlssive. The signature
was Rose, and Simon discovered by the mail
mark that it come from certain city in
Rhode Island.
Simon the Younger's heart responded to
the sentiment and he replied in n congenal
spirit. He was not long in receiving a congo
NAL reply. Three or four more letters were
written by each. BY this time Simon thought
best to take somebody into his confidence,
So he showed the letters to Rob the Red
Head. Rob the Red Head knew the hand
writing in an instant, and he told Simon the
Younger that his fair correspondent was his
own sister Sally Severance.
Fortified by this knowledge and knowing
Sally had the reputation Of being smart,
capable girl, the correspondence was renew
ed with vigor and kept up until valentines
day was again near at hand
Although nothing serious had been pro-
posed, the correspondence had reached n