Litchfield enquirer., 1878-02-21

What on airth's the matter with ye, Loo | cy Stop, now, right off-stop, tell ye, an speak up." s.I- .,,.., .-..
 'sOh, oh, oh, husband Miss Nancy Tuttle2 | ben here she'e ben a-talkin' awfal.I She said | she considered twas her dooty to come Ian deal 1 with me- becoz-becoz--oh oh, oh. "0uf,,n1- l "Stop it, now, thunderin' quick, Loocy! l l can't stan here all day." l. ssO-h! she said she heerd lot of talk against you, husband, an she thought I'd ought to | know it, so'st could use my influence with ] ! you. and kinder persuade you to do different" l'3nA grim smile twisted S. Paine's stiff lips: Lucys influence with him, indeed {! s |
 "Wel, weH," said he, sgo ahead let's hear what I've ben a-doin." |qs sOLh! oh dear She said you sanded the sugar down to the store, an put water into the sperrits, an'F asked folks two prices for butter. Oh dear! l. never was 50 beat in all my days.p
 - 1''H-m,p growled MT. Paine, ''rn settle with her myself, Loocy. ."i.e0a o1 '.A7 f...' = "Oh, you can't you can't noways. ss She's gone off in the stage to York State to live. 1 She said she felt as though she must free her mind before she went, 90 she jest stepped I in"
 'Darn her!"
 l Luckily for Lucy, she was sobbing so hard she did not hear this expletive, which had all the force of & stronger oath,, coming from those decorous lips, was not quite open profanity. | '<Look a-here, Loocy," Mr. Paine began. | 'sJest you shut your head about that scandal ous old maids talk. Hain't told ye time an agin that the sperrit an principle O the golden rewl was my sperrit and principle? Whats | the harm eff I sell poor folks butter 8 leetle mite cheaper'n sell it to folks with means /? An eff put pint O water inter Bic Jones's rum jug, dot out O consideration for his family he can't afford to buy clear sperrit. AS for shoogar, it's sanded afore it comes to me- you better believe! Now don't ye go a-tel- lin every body all these lies they grow every time they're sot out in fresh ground. There ain't nothin' 50 good for fools talk nor liars | as hullsome lettin alone" With which piece of verbal wisdom Samuel Paine went his way, and Lucy subsidedt to her customary anddomes- tic meekness.
 But the current of their lives was nightly disturbed some months after this conversation ] by the advent into the quiet household of big obstreperous 3aby. Lucy was blessed for once in her life to the very overf1owing of her torpid heart. MT. Paine would have been better pleased with boy, to take the store and the post-otfice after him |; but still he was pleased An odd stir of feeling astonished him when he saw the helpless little creature, and with nat ural forecast he reflected that there might be boy yet and SO forgave her for being only girl. However when years slipped by and no 
 made her way boldly into her fathers good graces, and almost reconciled him to her sex. Miss Louise ruled her mother, of course-that was in the nature of things but all the village | looked on in wonder to see the mastery she achieved over Samuel Paine, or, as he was now ealled-partly because of the legal information he had acquired, and on pinch dispensed, from his father-in-law's library, and partly be- cause he had well stepped into that gentleman's shoes otherwise-Squire Paine.
 | Louise was an unaGcOuntable offshOOt from the parental tree, certainly. Her vivid con- plexion, waving dark hair, brilliant brown eyes, and well-made figure were not more at | variance with the aspects of her father and I mother than her merry, honest, and fearless nature was with their dispositions. Neither of them tried to govern her, after a few futile attempts. Her mother did not see any need of it. To her the child was perfect-a gift of God held in fear and trembling lest He should recall it from mortal idolatry, but being gift, to be entertained as an angel Squire Paine never held any such nonsensical idea as this :; but if he undertook to scold or reprove made moiselle, she instantly sprang into his arms, wound her fat hands in his coat collar, and snuggled her curly head against his lips with laugh like bobolink's, and utterl y routed, the squire would lift her to his shoulder and march her of to the store, to range among rasln box es, sugar barrels, and candy jars to her hearts content feeling all the while half ashamed of the unwOnted warmth in his breast, the diff culty of speeh, the soft cowardice that carried him away captive, bound to the chariot of this small conqueror, who was gracious enough not to triumph only because she conquered uncon- sciously.
 So matters went on year after year In spite of sweets and spelling, Louise grew up strong and healthy, thanks to the open air in which it was her royal pleasure to live and move and have her being A city mother would have Wept over the brown complexion, in which liv- l ing crimson burned with warm splendor un- known to milk and roses, and any boarding school phalanX would have shuddered at the well-taned slender hands that were so delft at nutting, fishing, picking berries, and digging roots. But Bassett people wtre not fine. They only laughed and nodded as Louise tore down the wide street on the squires ancient horse, lashed to horrid gallop by an old trunk strap Whanged about bis sides, and the thumps of stout country boots when he dared relax this spirited pace.
 By-and-by Lucy, quite ashamed of herself in all these years years of mild motherly bliss to think she had never given her husband son, began to fade and fail little and at last declined into her grave as gently as late spring snow-drift into the brown grasses. Louise was fifteen now, and knew no more about housekeeping than a deer in the forest, though successive seasons at the academy had given her a fair education for country girl | who did not need or intend to teach for her liv- ing She mourned for her dear patient little mother far more than missed her, for Lucy was too inert too characterless, to leave wide vacancy in her home There are some people | whose departure takes the sunshine of our days, the salt of our food the flavor of our pleasures, yea, the breath of our lives away with them; whose loss is a wound never to be healed, al- ways bleeding smarting, burning into our very souls, till time shall be no more. And there are others whose death, after the first natural burst of feeling, fails to impress itself deeply even on their nearest and dearest the selfish, the exacting, the tasteless, timid natures that were scarce more than vegetable in their hu- manity-these are lightly mourned; and of these last was Lucy Paine.
 It became necessary, it is true, to put house. keeper in her place, for the ''hired girl" whom 1 Squire Paine had unwillingly consented to in- stall in the kitchen when his wife's strength began to fail could not be trusted to manage the household; 80 Mir. Paine bethought himself of second cousin living in small village up the country, of whom he had now and then heard incidentally and happened to know was still unmarried and pursuing her trade of tail press about Hermon and the vicinity. So he wrote to Miss Roxy Keep to come down at once to Bassett and see him, as Hermon was too far for him to go, taking time from his business which he could not spare. It was made very plain in Squire Paine's letter that Miss Roxy's visit was purely matter of busi- ness, and her answer was as business-like as could be desired. She could not, she said, af' ford journey to Bassett unless it resulted in some purpose of good if Squire Paine wanted to see her enough to pay her fare one way, she was willing to fresk" the other half. This curt and thrifty note rather pleased the squire for though he did not want to risk his money any more than Miss Roxy, still he thought her proposition showed her to be of his own frugal and forehahded sort, and he at once closed I with those terms
 I It might be a curious matter of investigation to note the influence different occupations have upon those who pursue them. Why is it that tailoress was always incisive, practical, full of resource, acute, fearless and even snappy Did any body ever see 8 meek woman useful with cloth and shears? Do the masculine ha- | hil;D,oufo 1x5l,icl oh fochiopc iroporf virilo