News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1882-11-23
Of humor, but kind. tender and faith

uOl1 hIlOM DJlb Wudb JNOCuSl
kind of folksy to have our own vittles for
once Thanksgivin' Day. Seems as though
I'd jist as ieves be thankful to the Lord
as to the neighbors once in awhile.
why, how you talk ! never heered
of the Lords sendin' chicken an squash
}, an cranberries to folks faint reelly what
you could call nanny, nor there aint no
sech miracles as NANNY and quails in
these days"
"Well, the Lord helps them that helps
themselves, Clorindy, and L do banker to
be mite more Independent than we be,
a good many times. I've got an idee,
and Tn going to foller it up. | saved
them lash squash seeds t Mis- Hough
sent us, and I'm goin' to dig up a cor
ner in the garden an hev hill o squashes.
[ can get road-scrapin's enough to ma
nure 'em, and they do say dish-waters
fust best to make things grow; and [ can
peg 'em along i'll front of the currant
bushes, so st they won't swamp the beets
n things in the beds. I blieve 1 can do
1t as well as not
"WelI; sposin' We car? Squashes
aint chicken, nor cranb'ries nuther.
g 1 hain't got to the end of the idee
yet; you wait mint. I dono but what
spiced currants will be jest as good with
chicken pie as cranb'ry sass, and we've
| got plenty to stew up an spice.
'''Taint noways the same thing" said
Clorinda, plaintively.
"Well, it's another thing, and that's
just as good, mabbe better, for a change.
And concernin' a chicken, why, we can
buy one O them Braymys of Mis- Emer-
son cheap, whilst it's real little. should
MT wonder eff she'd sell it for ninepence.
They're real risky to bring up, and she's
like to hev sight of 'em. It's tn end of
April of now, and she's got six clutches
settin', and there's four old hens cluck-
in now, ready to set jest as quick as the
eggs Is ready for 'em."
g don't reelly see, Joe, why 'twon't
be jest as hard for you to raise one Bray
my chicken as It's for Mis- Emerson to
raise hull broods. Seems as though We
was a countin' of 'em some in advance"
| "WeI, you can't always tell. I can
eosset one, where 1 couldn't twenty. [
can get it anyway. Ninepence won't
do my everlasting best to make it live,
an it don't, why there It's it's dispen-
sation. But [ guess it'll live"
So Miss Joe proceeded to the wOodshed,
where, with the slaves of an old barrel,
broken hoopskirt, nails, and hammer,
she proceeded to construct the most as
| tonishing hen-coop possible.
In one corner an old seidlitz- powder
box, relic of Miss Clorinda's " bad spells"
was fastened to the side as a drinking
trough, and when the coop was securely
staked down close to the back door,
nest of hay was made in one corner, and |
a substantial perch fastened firmly across
the whole habitatiOn
Mrs. Emerson proved propitious, and
white Brahma chicken was installed in |
this mansion about the first of May, with |
all due hOnors
1t really put new life into this small
home to have an object of such daily in
terest and care. The chicken was named |
at once for the sake of some "handle to |
it, as Miss Joe said, and it very soon |
learned to know that "Peter' meant a |
summons to its meals, and would run like |
a sandpiper at the CALL
cts the knowinest cretur !" exclaimed |
smiling Miss ClOrinda, who really forgot
her aches sometimes in the antics of her
pet.
Every night Peter was taken into the
kitchen, for fear of rats OF weasels, till at
last 1T was big enough to leave the coop,
perch on beam in the wood-house at
night, and do a good deal toward earning
llo hNlllSS ny Nltt9 bub lICNC4 @1IAShCI pC-
foIe grew so fat and sleek.
1t had all the scraps from the table,
the butcher left ''lights" once a week,
which were cooked and chopped for it,
and cost nothing Miss Joe got coarse
screenings at the feed-mill, and made |
them into pudding, and boiled all the |
''pu'sley" that was daily weeded out of |
her garden, as q change of diet for her
pet.
1t grew not only in size but in knowl-
edge. At every meal it pattered in to be
fed out of the sisters hands, and would |
fit up into Miss Clorinda's own rocker,
and go to sleep on the cushion after tea,
with her full consent and appreciation.
Meantime the squashes prospered.
Early every morning for a week or two
Miss Joe might have been seen-if any
body else was up-scraping the surface of
the highroad before her door, with hoe,
and conveying results to a coal-scuttle.
By the middle of May large hill of ex-
traordinary richness was made in the cor
ner of the small garden, and in it were
deposited handful of the precious seeds.
81 want to set enough for me an the
bugs, too" she said, when ClOrinda
meekly suggested she had set too many.
However, the hoop of an old cheese
box covered with a bit of soiled and
darned lace kept off all bugs, and ring
of salt and wood ashes made it uncom-
Portable for cut-worms as they soaked
gradually into the ground, and every seed
came up, crowding like small arm from
the rich, warm soil.
1t went to Miss Joe's heart to pull up
the strong succulent young plants, and
she actually transplanted some to the
n. .nEAl 1l,1 l.. |
years made deep black bed such as
plants enjoy.
But the three she left on the hill grew
like Jacks bean-stalk and when the cur
rants were ripe, ready to be picked and
spiced the squash vines were full of
great yellow blossoms in the garden. and
those by the shed-door had rioted all
over the tiny yard, and clambered on to
the remains of a former wood-pi of dry
old logs set up against the fence. There
they opened their long buds day after
day, with as l;lxuriant promise as their
compeers in the hill.
"Guess you'll hev pies enough"
laughed Clorindy, whose interest in the
garden and the chicken had kept her out
of doors more than ever she had been in
her life before, and brought back some
life-like color to her thin face, and some
energy to her voice and step.
''Well, if they set good, and ripen up
good, can sell 'em all to the tavern.
They're the best sort, gonooine Hubbard,
and Mis- Emerson, to the tavern, she's
a-goin' to hev them railroad folks, engi-
neers, ye know, to board this comm win
ter, and she's bespoke all L can let her
hev; and, Clorindy, the amt one
amongst all her Braymys can hold can
die to Peter. hefted the biggest on 'em
last week, and they warn't noways to
compare with him. "
"Do tell Well, we've cosseted him up
so He's eet an eet an eet, all he could
swaller, and 'twould be real strange if he
didn't grow some. And he beats all for
cuteness L don't see why he don't hav'
no comb nor no spurs. L thought they
always had EN-"
Land he amt nothin' but chick p'
However, even when summer passed
by, and cool, sweet autumn days setin,
when the big squashes lay like golden
spheres ON the grass and along by the
currant bushes, Peter made no show of
his proper crest and knightly append
ages. He was fat, lazy and happy,
would nestle in Miss Clorinda's lap like
pet cat, and follow Miss Joe all over the
house with an attachment so evident. the
old lady more than retT1rnpd If