Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1875-09-10

old was amazin' sickly all along the coast.
1 was nigh beat out nursin' 'Bijah Porters
wife through the typhoid, and had come
home one Wednesday afternoon TO get a
little rest. As was lyin' on the lounge,
in balf-doze, the door opened and Mis-.
Williston come in. She never stopped nor
spoke, but come straight across the floor,
with a face white as ghost. Then she
put her hands on my shoulders, and says
she, Mis-. Dawson, my Jocks got the fe-
ver.' rose up like a flash, and put my
shawl over my head, and went home with
her. And never came home, ma'am for
seven weeks. Awe-some weeks they were,
ma'am. The nights were worst. 1 used
TO feel as If We Two were fightin' Death hand
10 hand for that boy, and he was tossin'
on the pillow, his red cheeks sunk away,
all his curly hair shaved close to his head,
and in all that time never givin' US one
reasonable word or look. II was the fourth
week when 1 minded one mornin' as Mis-.
Williston sat by the bed, that her hair was
turuin', but by the seventh, ma'am, when
the fever left him, it was as white as mine
is now.
out of him, and when he did once begin 10
mend, ii was so slow that it took us great
while 10 find out that anything was wrong.
1t came TO me first when l went into the
bedroom, one afternoon, of sudden. He
didn't see me for a minute, and laid there
a playin' with his fingers, then all TO once
he looked up and laughed That laugh
ma am all the rest was as nothin' 10 that
ju.t sunk down into chair and groaned,
20 Lord, have mercy on his motherT Not
Mdtg
1.-The Lold did have mercy on her, but
not in my way. He took her home that
next winter, and I've thought many time
that I'd like to "a been by when he explain
ed TO her--as I'm certain he would-some
things that we down here waited years and
years for, and many more, belikes, that
we've never found out at all.
"Poor little Jock got well agan-in his
body-that was all. His mind was clear
gone. He used to so about gentle and
harmless as a lamb. Whilst his mother
lived, he'd follow her every step she took,
but more like dog than human child. II
she sat down, he'd just drop down at her
feet, and rub his head on her knee, like a
dumb thing. Not but that he talked yet
a good deal sometimes-but all in a weak,
sensele>s fashion, tbard half break your
heart. lie didn't seem to know the reason
of any thing-he might be hall-,.arved and
yet never think Of eatin' unless you put
the victuals before him.
"There was a while afler Mis-. Williston
died that l had a little hopes OF him. He
used 10 wander around as if he was search
ing for something, and sometimes, all 10
once an odd look d come into his face for
half second-you'd "a said to look at
him, that lie was just goin' TO find II,
whatever twas. 1t was then he took the
habit that stuck to him ever after, of clap
pin both hands TO his head and sayin' IT'S
comm ! What's comm, Jocky? l used
10 say sometimes, and the poor boyd stare
up into my face with dazed, 'wildered
look for a minute, and then break out into
one OF his weak, senseless smiles.
There was little or nothin' len to lake
care of him with but not man or woman
on the island would ever "a let child o.
Csp'n Willistons come TO want, let alone
his bein' poor unfortunate like Jock. So
we all adopted him, as you might say, and
he used to go and come from one house 10
another just as suited him. On the whole,
he seemed 10 stick 10 me the most. You'll
wonder at it, maybe, but the poor boy was
real company for me amer all, bein' alone
so much when Zebedee-that was my man
was gone of on his wEalin' voyages.
~ used TO be master baud to read my
Bible in them days, though my old eyes
We been too dim for il now this many n
year. Thank the Lord, though, that can
see the page a most as well as ever in my
mind l had habit of readin' out loud a
great deal, seemin, TO get tue sense better
so-especially in the Psalms-and queer as
you might think it, there Jock'd lay
stretched on the rug, before the Fireplace,
a listening by the hour. l used 10 think
twas the sound o my voice he liked, for
he didn't know enough to understand a
single word rightly. But howsOeyer that
was, bearkenin' 10 me readin' was one of
the two things he seemed TO like best in the
world. TIE other was to so out with the
men in the boats. OF course lie wasn't of
auy betg but iutN All
him, and sometimes, in the mackerel sea-
son, they'd keep him out for days and
weeks TO time.
"But l must hurry along, maam, or I'll
be firing you out. All this while Jock
was CROWN up, and at twenty he was a
great strong fellow, standn' a good six
foot in his stockin's. He didn't look that
tall, though, OWN to his sioopin' some
and walkin' with a shufiin', shamblin'
sort o. gate, such as you've minded in 9TH
ers, may be, when the brain didn't hold the
tiller.
at was that same summer when Mabelle
DevereuX first came TO the Island. Her
father was a French gentleman, who had
lived a great many years in this country.
Bein' out Of health, he thought 10 try the
sea air for while. I'm an old woman,
and I've seen many fresh face in my
time, but never another that was fit to set
alongside Mabelle Devereux. There was
picture in Parson Ellet's parlor, over the
mantle-piece, that came from over the seas,
"a madonna he called il. And I've heard
tell that it was copied after the greatest
picture of the greatest painter that ever
lived. But that's neither here nor there,
only when first set my eyes on Mabelle
sltin' one Sunday in Deacon Prices pew
Mis-. Price was aunt to Mabel's mother,-I
leaned over the forward pew before 1
thought what was doin', and whispered
TO 'Bijdh PorIer's wife, Look there! There's
Parson Ellet's picture stepped ont o. the
framer
"Mabelle was as good as she was pretty.
1 used to tell them that all the young men
of the coast just stood alar off and worship