Litchfield enquirer., 1878-02-21
From Harp Magazine.l Squire Paine's Conversion.
BY ROSE TERRY COOKE.

HOllG6tcdu WlLuOub UTUt11CI6 UT
 Had any of these means of grace shared his joys and sorrows, perhaps his nature would have been modified; but he was sole heir of the few rugged acres, scant pasturage for the old red cow and the bit of ''medder land" that reluctantly gave corn and rye and pota- toes enough for the household, and barely hay sufficient to winter the COW and the venerable horse that belonged to old Dibhle Paine, Sam uers father. Now in such a case it is slave or starve in New England. Hard work is the initial lesson. SaInuePs youth of labor began early At three years old, in brief garments of yellow flannel, and a 1axen thatch of hair for head covering he toddled in and out ot the kitchen with chips in basket; he fed the chickens, he rode in the hay wagon, and was moreover, ruled already with rod of iron, or rather . stout shingle, which hung, ready to hand, D the chimney piece. At seven, Inc AssensAy Chatechism was drilled into him, I and he 8rudged daily mile and back to the old red school house, doing schores' at every odd interval; getting up by daylight insammer and long before in winter, to fetch and carry for the pale woman who was wife and mother in thatmeagre household; going to meeting Sundays as faithfully as Parson Wires him. self; and in the course of years growing up to be goodly youth, saving, industrious, cor rect perfectly self-satisfed, and conscious of his merits and other peoples demerits. but t1c COUESC OL years tdhCo dS WCu do | gives When Samuel was twenty he was fatherless and motherless. The old farm was let on shares, and behind the counter of country store in Basset he dealt out, with strict justice-to his employer !-scant yards of calico, even measures of grass seed, small pounds of groceries, sugar not too sweet, and many other necessities of life i'll the same pro- | portion. Old Si Jones never had so thrifty clerk, never made so much money in the same | time never had so few loungers about. In due time Samuel experienced religion-or said he | did, was duly examined, ,glibly reeled off his in- | ward exercises to the admiring deacons, and at l the proper season was propounded and admit l ted to the church in Basset. He had always been strictly moral young man, and sober one-not in the sense of temperance, but sober | in habit and manner.
 | Samuel Paine never indulged in those youth | ful gayeties that 80 many boys rejoice in. He ! never used tobacco in any form, never drank | cider, Or ''waited" on any girl in Bassett, though there was the usual feminine surplus of new England village in this one. In the evening he read law diligently in Squire Lar l kin's office, because he thought it might be useful to him hereafter. He sat in the singers 1 seat in the meeting house. his straight long face, cold gray eyes, sleek light hair, and lin l en, looking respectable enough for whole congregation. He had class in Sunday school "a class of big girls all of whom hated him thoroughly, but never dared own It. Armed with Barne's Notes and CruGer's Concordance, | he did his duty to his class in explaining and expounding the doctrine of the lesson but while he impressed the letter on their minds, the sweet and living spirit never lit his cool eye or warmed his accurate speech. What | ever else those young girls learned Of Samuel
 Paine, they never learned to love the Lord or
 His words for he knew not how to teach them His soul had never yet found it's level, had never yet had the lesson that comes to us l all some time in our lives, whether we accept | it or not, and he went on in his own narrow way without let or intolerance.
 ..~- Before Samuel was twenty-five, Si Jones re- | tired from business in Bassett, being persuad- l ed by ais wife to remove into Vermont, where her friends lived. He had made good deal l of money, and being childless and we'll under his wifes thumb, she had induced him to sell out and go back to her old home. Now came the time Samuel Paine had long looked for.
 He had saved, spared, pinched, to this end. | He bought out the store and the small frame | house that contained it-a house with two rooms up stairs and a kitchen in the little wing Part of the money he paid down in
 cash; part borrowed on a mortgage the rest
 he was forced to give notes for.
 Well" said Bijah Jones, far-oH cousin
 of Sis, and the village loafer and joker, 'guess ] folks'll hev to keep their eyes peeled now. 1 | tell ye, Samwell Paine beats the Dutch to
 drive bargain. Ye won't know where ye be-
 fust ye know anything he'll sell ye pair l O store pants in five minnits when ye don't | want lem no moren toad wants pock- | et"
 | ''Dew tell p sputtered old Grandsir Baker,
 who had just come from the town-hOuse with
 a hank of yarn to trade off for some molasses.
 ''Well we'll well! Howsever he can't sell
 me nothin, cos haint got no money; ye can't | get blood outen stone nohow, He he hep
 Blessed be nothn '" dryly put in 'Bijah. l And all this time Samuel was announcing 1 bis principles in the store to knot of farmers l and village worthies come in for the first time since s. Paine's name had been seen above the
 door.
 sYes, sir yessir Eve cleaned up consid'r- ble; hope to cleanup more. 'xpect to con-
 duct business on a line, gentleman-a straight
 line, so to speak; seemin'ly, as it were. There
 ain't no rewl better for all things than the golden rewl; that contains the sperrit and principle of the hull thing. Dos you'd like to be done by; that's my idee in short partike- | lar metre"
 | A dry rattling laugh emphasized this conclu-
 sion, and sort of unwilling ''Haw !' haw ]" 1 chorused it from the audience 'Bijah Jones had drawn near enough to the open door to
 hear part of the sentence, and grinned widely.
 ''Come along, grandsir," shouted he to the
 hobbling old fellow from the poor-house.
 Strike while tn irons hot. He's talking 1 Scripter with all fury; now's your time to swap l that yarn. Bet you'll git hull cask of las- ses!"
 | Grandsir Baker did not quicken his halting l pace for this advice, and it is not on record | that he got any more molasses than he expect
 ed to; but he told Mrs. Wells that mo-
 lasses had rig and yarn hadn't: Samwell Paine
 told him 80. A village store-the store-is not matter of hazard, but vital necessity. There is no competition to be dreaded in place like Basset. Nobody else had capital or l experience to set up an opposition shop there was no better place to trade within twenty miles, and it was by the. very doors of Basset people, if they did not quite like the way things l were conducted, they must still abide by it, fer there was no help. And in many things
 the business was nightly improved since Si Jones's time : the shop itself was clean and or derly; cod-fish did not Turk in @ dusty corner
 behind patent ploughs and tea leaves did not fall into the open flour barrel; if sand was sus pected in the sugar, there were certainly
 no chips of tobacco in it's grainy mass; and cal ico and candy did not live on the same shelf, or raisins, bar soap, and backing occupy a
 drawer together; the floor was swept, washed,
 and sanded, the counters secured off, the cob
 webs banished, the steps repaired the win
 dows kept bright and clear. If 5. Paine's clerk
 had hard work for lad of eighteen, his en-
 ployer could quote Scripture with tremendous
 fluency and fitness when the boys old mother
 remonstrated.
 ''Well, Miss Bliss, don't deny John has to
 work. So do I; so do I. It's good for a man
 to bear the yoke in his youth, Scripter says
 There ain't nothin' better for no man than
 work. By the sweat O thy brow, ye know.
 The sperrit and principleof the golden rewl is
 my sperrit an principle: dos you'd be done
 by. Yes, yes; eff was boy agin, I'd want
 to be brought up jest as was brought upon
 hard work and poor Twin That rouses the
 grit, 1 tell ye. I'm a-doin' by John jest as l
 was done by, so don't ye resent it. It's fur his
 best int'rest, soul and body" With which chopped straw poor Mrs. Bliss's motherly heart
 was forced to content itself, for there was no
 other refreshment. rag1rsI
 Perhaps in this application of the. golden rewP Samuel Paine forgot how his childish flesh
 had wept and cringed under the harsiships of his early life how his childish soul had famed