The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1882-02-09

noi BinS her speech INTO mySterlOu
whisper, "Tve just remembered, all O
a sudden as it were, that she has a Sc
OF very old faring blue china. Sh,
must have. 1t belonged to her motf e
before her; and how I've forgotten it al
these years I'm sure 1 can't imagine
Even now l shouldn't have recalled i
to my memory, I suppose, if hadn'
CHANGED to see, at Mrs. Hepburn'i
afternoon tea yesterday, the darlingis
little egg-shell cups, with bridges anc
pagodas and willow trees all over 'em
exactly such as Aunt Grizzels mother
used to have. Then it came to me lik,
o fash of lightning-Aunt Grizzel,
china r.
Probably it's all broken by thi,
time" gloomily suggested her hus
band.
Nonsense !" said Mrs. Symington
briskly. "Aunt Grizzy never broke
anything in her life. She is careful
ness itself; and up there in Maine, yor
know, they don't have clumsy mattresses
to fling things about No, no you
may depend that she has it all safe and
sound in one of those odd little three
cornered cupboards of hers. A treasure,
Stanhope, a perfect treasure. Money
wouldn't buy such set as that; o
hundred years old, if it's day. So, il
you won't mind, my dear, I'll Just run
up to Maine, and see about it,"
"Do as you please, Arabella," said
Mr. syminRton, resignedly. He knew
that Mrs. Symington generally did as
she pleased, and he saw no especial ad.
vantage in debating the question.
Thanks, dear; SO kind of you p'
uttered Mrs. Symineton. "And OF
course can't go to the polar regions
entirely unprotected, so I'll order
one of those comfortable seal dol.
mans that everybody is wearing now,
and new plush hat with cluster OF
ostrich tips. One must go dressed like
other people; and if you can give me
twenty-five or thirty. dollars l dare say
Aunt Grizzy will let me have the set
for that (she don't know the value of
old china, poor thing! y and the Jour-
ney won't be more than thirty dollars
both ways, if I 60 by sea. including a
stateroom."
cit appears to me-" said MIR. Syming-
ton, discouraeingly, "thst this is a
good deal of a wild goose chase, going
dancing up to the northern boundaries
of Maine at this time of year for an old
set OF tiumpery china which probably
didn't cost ten dollars to start with"
"Oh, Stanhope, it did |" cried the
lady, Indignantly. "It was real India
ware. imported, without paying a dollar
OF duty, by an old sea captain in the
India trade, expressly for my grand
mother Grumpton. And besides you
are so groveling and prosaic in your
IDEAS. As If the original cost of thing
Of this nature signifies! It the aesthetic
value that wo look at, don't you seer"
"Ah !" said Mr.. Symington. "Well,
If you must 60, you must go, suppose;
and of course shall have to give you a
check for what money you are likely to
want"
And Mr.. Symington sighed deeply
and went upstairs to get o piece of
for his cut finger.
Mrs. Symington went to Wild Rive.
in the northern boundaries Of Maine,
where the pine forests were thatched
with snow, and the icicles tinkled in
he woods OF Ia moonlight night like so
many castanets gone mad. She made
he greater part of the voyage by sea,
md was consequently very seasick, for
he water was rough and the gale tenn
)estous.
" [ will come back by land" she said
o herself, as she sat in the little hotel
It Portland, and viewed her green and
'ellow complexion with a shudder.
Money wouldn't induce me to risk nv
ife again in that horrid steamer, where
me is bufeted and seesawed about on
waves that are as high as house. The
'alace-car fare will be something of an
'xtra expense, and shall lose my re-
urn ticket by steamer, but I'm sure MIR.
'ymington won't grudge it to me when
10 hears how I've been pitched and
unbled about on the ocean in peril of
ny life"
And she eesput on her black brocaded
llk, her new plumed hat, and the seal
Iolman, and took the northward-bound
rain, resolved to present an imposing
ppearance to Aunt Grizzly Grump-
on when she should reach Wild River
tation.
1t was very cold-a dull, bitter ,leaden
the ground frozen like &
ock, the streams bound in ice, the
ky gray and bitter, with an ineffable
loom. Aunt Giizzel Grumpton lived
q little one-storied house on the top
+ an uncompromising hill, where a
olltary cedar tree was twisted around
Ike corkscrew with the force of the
asst wind, and the few lean sheep
uddled behind the rocks in shivering
roups, picturesque, but far from COM
ortable. And even after they had
ONE in sight of the old building whose
ne coat of red paint had long ago been
'orn away by the suns and rains of
ell l-nigh century, Mrs. Symington
ad serious doubts whether the one
orse sleigh in which she was jerked
nd jolted up the incline would not be
loWn sheer away by the rush of the
'mpest before they could reach their
However, it wasn't. And once in
unit Grizzy's cottage things were very
omfortable. There was no wide
hroated chimney, filled with moss
hinged logs, such as the fancy of city
wellers is apt to depict in the solitary
People in Maine know
etter than that. But there was an i'm
lense cook stove, which heated the
pom to an atmosphere OF eighty odd
egrees; the cracks in the window
ashes were pasted over with brown
aper, and sand bags were laid on the
op ledges, while a double rag carpet
oyered the floor, and wood-box,
eaped to the very top, stood in the