Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1877-05-30

family, it being the great event therein for
years, seemed, at the time it occurred, the
climax of a series of misfortunes that had
been falling for five years upon our devot-
ed heads.
First, we lost our dear father, who left
the family already mentioned-namely,
mamma, Meta Freddie and myself. Meta
was but fourteeen when father died, [
twelve, and Freddie but three years of age.
There was no money for US after the busi-
ness was closed, and mamma thankfully
accepted an offer of her Uncle Gordon to
be his housekeeper. and so secure home
for all of us.
Such home! Uncle Gordon Crofts
was a man nearly seventy, strong and Wig
Orous, with most ungovernable temper,
misery and suspicious, who had lived
alone for about forty years. What sudden
spasm of generosity made him open the
doors of his wretched, tumble-down old
house to us, we never knew; but certainly
he repented the arrangement as soon As
his proposal was accepted.
Not one meal passed our lips that we
were not reminded of its cost; not an arti
Gle of our poor clothing was renewed
without deep groans over our eXtrava-
gance; and we were put out at once, Meta
and myself, to learn trades, being APP
prenticed to miliner, Meta to II book
| binder.
knew now that, scant as our wages
were, they covered the expenses of our
poor food and worse lodging, AS for poor
mamma with all the housework, sewing,
washing and cooking upon her hands,
surely she earned the little she spent
But in spite of our poverty and hard
work, Meta blossomed into ~ beautiful,
modest and tender girl was never even
pretty.
When Brent Ellis discovered Mota's at
fractions, she WAS eighteen, still working
as bookbinder, in IL place of business
which Brent's father owned. Old John
Ellis, after storming and raging like II
maniac at the presumption of one of the
"hands =" daring to be sufficiently attract
i've to win the love of the son and heir of
his magnificence, dismissed Meta at an
hours notice. As he owned the only
bookbindng establishment in town, and
Meta knew no other trade. affairs looked
black enough for us.
DTGu ulIuSGll wis IluV 40 olCClI bHu
wanted Meta to marry him at once. But,
in spite of her gentleness Meta had some
plide, and refused to enter family where
SIZE was not welcome. Mother, too, at
tk crisis informed Brent that his visits
! h&d better cease, and Meta did not speak
one word of dissent.
stormed, of course; l always do storm
when | am angry. But nobody ever came
round to my opinion, no matter how |
raved-and John Ellis certainly did not.
| To be sure he did not hear me, or that
might have made some difference.
Mid.winter found us in this strait. Meta
out of employment, helping mother about
the house, and patiently bearing Uncle
Gordon's protests against her idleness and
fine. lady airs trimming hats and meek
Iy handing over my wages to our uncla;
Freddie still at the town school, but with
an apprenticeship looming in the spring.
In January Uncle Gordon was taken ill
the first serious sickness in his life. He
would have no doctor until absolutely
forced to call one i'll by reason of increas-
ing pain and weakness, and when the
| long delayed examination was over it
| proved to have been made too late.
In Just one month from his first pain
our uncle died, leaving II brief will, con
fering all his property, the house includ
ed, upon our mother, = his well-beloved
niece, Sarah Morton.
But where was the propertyP Not Il
shilling was deposited in the bank; not
an inch of real estate was held in his name,
save the miserable piece of land upon
which the house stood, and which barely
yielded vegetables for the. table. We
turned the house upside down and inside
out, but not coin rewarded our search.
Finally we concluded that the misery we
had seen, the lamentations we had heard,
were the result of real, downright poverty, !
and not the mere pretences of II miser. |
And we struggled along somehow, mother
sewing little, Meta doing housewOrk,
and still ut the milliners. We did not
starve. That is the record of the next
four months-a struggle for mere bread,
and the saving of actual existence, moth
ing more. And, to cap the climax, came 4
the fire.
1t was a night in June-a clear, STAR
light highland l, though weary enough, !
was sleepless. Meta lay hy my side,
wakeful as myself, and told me, in soft
whispers, that she had met her lover that
day, when on some household eCrand and
he had urged her sorely to marry him,
though his father had not retented
II don't know but | would,' I said.
" After all, be is man, and rust be able
to care for you somehow. This life is
killing you.
And rs l spoke, Mete cried, d" I smell
smoken
"Smell it," cried, starting up. II sec
itw
There it was, coming in at the cracks of
the worn-out door, little threads ut first,
but filling the room rapidly. We caught
up some clothing and rushed to the door.
As we opened it, the flames burst out on
the landing and staircase, forcing us to re. |
treat
Mother and Freddie slept in rooms be-
yond ours on the other side, and we rush
ed across to them, and we all four scram-
bed, half-drcssed, from Freddies window
to shed and so to the yard.
BY this time the neighbors were awaken.
cd, and the houses about us were glowing |
in the flames shooting up from our old
house to the sky. Fancy if you can the
group we foCmed, us we stood hudded to-
gethor in the yard, and watched every
thing we owned upon earth being licked
up by greedy tongues of flame, swallowed
in clouds of smoke. Meta and | could
see our bedroom closet and the scanty
stock of clothing there and count the
dearly-purchased articles rs they were
consumed.
My poor black alpaca" Meta said,
watching the lurid trimming creeping up
the skirt. 1--WE might have snatched that.
1t hangs on the door"
=" Sec my handbook toppling over"
said. "The bonnet will have flame-color-
ed feathers in two minutes"
Mother was too much crushed to share
in our grim jesting, and Freddie was
trembling with excitement and terror.
The iircmen did their duty bravely, but
we're too late to save anything, and dawn
found us homeless, with nothing left of
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