Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1879-02-13

Ine srSund Is clad for the grave to-day.
ma, No.; should no power thu ice-king stay.
wall OF woe and Wild despair
Woul1 stlke the unrelenunz air;
sgMiG ie,e ana cold: the earth would roll,
hle!ess orb, with froz IN soul.
OUR QUEER NE|GHBORS.
BIZ T. B. ALDRICH.
When saw the little house building
an eighth of mile beyond my own, or
the Old Bay road, wondered who were
to be the tenants. The modest structure
was set well back from the road, among
the trees, as If the inmates were to care
nothing whatever for q view of the
stylish equipages which sweep by dur.
ing the summer season. For my part,
l like, to see the passing, in town OF
country; but. each has his. own taste.
The proprietor, who seemed to DE also
the architect Of the new house, superin-
tended the various details of the work,
with an assiduity that gave me a high
opinion of his intelligence and executive
ability, and ! congratulated myself on
the prospect OF having some very agree
able neighbors.
1twas quite early in the spring, if. I
remember, when they moved into the
cottage-a newly-married couple, evil
IDENTIFY; the wife very young, pretty and
with the air OF . lady; the husband
somewhat older, but still in the first
flush OF manhood. It was understood in
the village that they came from Balti-
more; but no one knew them personally,
and they brought no letters of introduce
ton. (For obvious reasons I refrain
from mentioning names). 1t was clear
that, for the present at least, their own
company was entirely sufficient for
them. They made no advances toward
the acquaintance of any of the families
in the neighborhood, and consequently
were left to themselves. That, apparent
ly, was what they desired, and why they
came to Ponkapog. For after its black
bass and wild duck and teal, solitude is
the chief staple of Ponkapog. Perhaps]
lta perfect rural loneliness should be in.
cluded. Lying high up under the wing
of the Blue hills, and in the odorous
breath of pines and cedars, it chances to
be the most enchanting bit of genuine
which, moreover, can bEreached in half
an hour by railway. But the nearest
railway station (heaven be praised) is
two miles distant, and the seclusion is
without Jaw. Ponkapog has one mail
day; two mails a day would render
the place uninhabitable.
village at distance, but unravels and
disappears the moment you enter into it
has quite q large floating population.
l do not allude to the perch and pickerel.
Along the Old Bay road, d highway even
in the colonial days, there are number
Of attractive cottages struggling of to.
ward Milton, which are occupied for the
summer by people from the city. These
birds of passage are distinct class from
the permanent inhabitants, and the two
seldom closely assimilate unless there
has been some. previous connection. It
seemed to me that our new neighbors
were to come under the head Of per
manent inhabitants; they had built their
own house, and had the air of intending
to live in it all the year round.
Are you not going to call on them?'
asked my wife one morning.
When they call on u.s." she replied
lightly. !
"Bat it is our place to call first, they
being strangers" H.,
This was said as seriously as the cir
cumstances demanded; but nv wife
turned it of with laugh, and said no
more, always trusting to her intuitions
in these matters,
She was right. She would not have
been received, and cool "not at home
would have been bitter social pill to us
If we had gone out of our WI y to be
courteous.
saw a great deal of our neighbors,
nevertheless. Their cottage lay between|
us and the postof6ce where he was
never to be met by any chance-and I |
caug hit frequent glimPses of the two
working in the garden: Floriculturel
did not appear 90 much an object as ex-
ercise. Possibly it was neither; maybe
they were engaged in digging for specf!l
mems OF those arrowheads and flint
hatchets which are continually coming
to the surface 'fhereab bouts There is|
scarcely an acre in which the plowshare
has not turned up some primitive stone
weapon or domestic utensil, disdainfully
left to us by the red men who once held |
this domain ancient tribe called the
Punkypoags, 4. forlorn descendant of !
which, one Polly Crowd, figures in the
annual blue book, down TO the southern |
war, as state pensioner: i quote from |
the local historiographer.' "- |A,'.''-'. 90
whether they were. developing 81
kltchen-garden or emulating Pitt. Schlie-
mann at Mycense, the new comera were
evidently, persons of refined, musical I
taste; the .lady'had voice of sre1narka.
BILE sweetness, although Of no Rzrteat Ic.o,m.
pass, and used often to lineer of a |
morning BY the high gate and ,listen toI
her executing an operate. air, coniec-
turally at some window upstairs for
the house was not visible from the pub
lie road. The husband, somewhere
about the grounds, would occasionally
respond with two or three bars It was
all quite an ideal, Arcadian. business.
They seemed very happy together, there
TWO persons, who asked no odds sWhat-l
ever OF the community ia which they
had settled themselves f.es 81 f,zs az
Ihere was = queerness, ssort Of tmys
terry, about this couple, which. 7 admit
piqued my curiosity, though. - rule. I'll
have no morbid interest ia ths snlfrs 81 /
my neighbour, They behaved IiIa I nair
of lovs1sWho had run off and M mail
ried cl{ndestinely. j willingly aeonitted |
them, the:0ne and the other; Of havinrl
~odf tis ira, 81 10 psat, g, sp,1 e.
as4 s'slia; 4. i & :: !; y:
Admitting the hypothesis ,ot elopsmsnt,,|
the1e WA no. mystsfy ia thsi1. neither
seno'ng nor! receiving sle6Geis. Butt
where did they get their groceries? I do
n 11. mean the money to pay for them
Enas - an enigma apsrt-but the grooe.