Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1881-11-23
From the independently
THANKSGIVING I'm THE HILLS.
BY HARRIET PRESCOTT sPOFFORD.

That old Anstlce Purcell loved hel
home was not to be wondered at. She
had been born in if, and so had her
mother before her. She had remem-
brance of no other, and it was as much q
Fart OF her existence as the sky and the
air. It would have seemed no stranger
to her to be without coping of blue sky
than 1t would to see four different walls
from these about her and to call them
home.
And, certainly, if beauty could give
one reason to love a spot, Anstlce had
reason enough. For was not the long,
low stone house perched on a crag, SO
that it looked like nothing but ichen
on that crag? And did 1t not overlook
purpling hill-tops below and far away,
and elm fringed intervals, with silver
streams looping and doubling through
them? And was not old Greyhead tower
ing above her, with all the woods and
precipices and storm-scored sides. and
casting a shadow over her; and Redcap,
taking the sunset fires on opposite upper
heights; and greater peaks, looming
blue III the horizon? And did she not
know when the weather was to be fine
by the vsnors round great Monasset
And, when tempests Of rain or snow set
In, did she not feel that Monasset and
Redcap and Greyhead stood, like three
powerful genii, and shut her in and
kept watch and ward over her and her
grandchildren, in their sad fortunes, as
they had kept it over her ancestors for
generations?
For her only son had been smitten
with strange unrest among these noun
tains-an unrest new to the Purcells-
(an6 he twice Purcell, since Anstice
had married her cousin) and, spurred
by the fear Of poverty, perhaps, and his
cnIldren'S fortune In the future, should
Greta give him children, he bad gone
away to sea, ten years ago, as if only
boundless horizon, after these imprison-
ing hills, could ill his yearning for
space. BE had left Margaret, his young
wife, with mother; for, although the
Purcell acres had shrunk with every
generation, there was yet a pittance
which would support the household till
he could send back or bring the riches
which he meant to have. But the mo-
ment when she saw his bright black eyes
flashing through her tears, as she ran
down the rocky path, to cross field and
wood. and take the coach, and turned a
moment to wave his hand joyously, was
the last In which Anstice had ever seen
him. The barque Albatross, the owners
after time wrote her, had gone down
with all on board.
For a season, then, it did not seem to
old Anstice that she lived. The world
was blotted out, the crags and hills,
Greyhead and Redcap and the rest were
not, and she saw only the great waste OF
waters for days and weeks and months,
till she was awakened from her apathy
by the sound of a child's voice In the
night, the quick, amazed cry of a new
born baby. OF one? Of two of them
She rose totteringly TO her feet, looked
about her in half bewilderment, then
hurriedly dressed herself, as she had not
done for SO long, and went out into an.
other room. ''Greta," she said, "yoU
have given me back my boy" AND
Greta used to think In after days thai
Anstice really felt as if the babies were
her own, and she herself was only 6
well-meaning nurse. But she never
grudged the care of her boys to theil
grandmother, great as the comfort OF
that care was to herself. She knew what
their love of their mother must needs
be; and she used to tell them that it was
because of them, stung to madness by
the thought of their coming to live the
life Of poverty and care that he saw
stretching out to old age, that her owl
son had gone away to come back nc
more. A woman, this sweet Gerta, who
shut her sorrow up In her own heart.
and never whispered it except to hel
babies IN the watches of the night, when
she would say to them how beautiful,
how bright, how brave a mau their
father was; how he had loved her and
she had worshipped him; how they must
grow like him and make haste to be
strong and good enough to take care of
their little grandmother, and let her her
self away to her husband. The only
trouble that ever came between her
and Anstice was that she would not
give either of the boys the fathers
name. emo" said she. sit is like
parting his raiment. Call them what