Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1883-08-29

u WllH NtIFOl palms, IIldI sbllcuOW VI olHtI
II always look pink in the distance, although
n they are yellow enough close to. Tn,
v meadows were crowded then bv cowslip
d and cuckoo blooms, and great marsl
is marigolds elittered in the sunshiD,
9 in the 'lakes," as we called the diche
e dug for draining purposes; and tn,
d village children looked on angrily while
e the big iron roller went to and fro
p over them, marking them out in bronC
O ribands Of pale and dark green that
d crushed the flowers down. and made il
e apparent that these favorite play places
i were "lad up for hay. and were
therefore no longer open to all who liked
! to walk them. Summer and autumn have
s all such golden memories memories Of
drowsy Sundays, when the hot walk tc
y church behind the servants was enlivened
t by our hostess's structures on the broad
i embroidery trimmed petticoats of the
] damses, or ''maidens MS we always
t termed them. When we used the after.
! Moons to wander about with our host,
P becoming learned in this or that farming
, operation, and seeing with his eyes deep
I down into natures very heart, it all
/ seemed so safe, so lasting; it was 81
certainly place where change never
cnme-never would come, hat we We're
not heartbroken when, The harvest supper
over in the great hot barn, lighted by a
yellow horn, that rose suddenly over the
top of the fir clump in LDwool we realized
that our stay at the North farm was over,
and that we must 90. We had obtained
all we came for; health and an intimate
knowledge of country life; and we were
Young and eager to begin life once more
for ourselves. Besides, we could return
at almost any time; and so gondoye. An
me, it was II long goodbye, and more than
fifteen years had passed before we came
again, and entered those once all familiar
all hospitable portals,
| 1t was M erie sensation, and one
experienced always, we take it, by those
who come back on very familiar spot,
and makes one see o one person who is
really there; but the forms and ftces OF
hose who once were component ptrs OF
the place, and who appear round corners
suddenly, and vanish us we come up to
them, eager TO speak and to be spoken
to.
We knew where to lind our ood, kind
host He had not gone away, but lay
very still and quiet. under the tree in the
au angels wing covering Gods acre in
the early sunshine; and as we stood
beside his grave. his widow with her
hand in ours, we could not speak
because we knew he had gone away from
US far too early in the day, and had fallen
because the fight was TOO much for him to
wage alone.
But his work should remain, we thought;
and so turned away, while the cuckoo
moved us with his monotonous call from
the newly budded sycamore tree, and went
on up the lane to visit the shepnerd in the
cottage we knew so we'll, But what
change was there; the cottages were all
fallen down, and u little farther on three
were standing, windows battered in, roofs
in places and only one inhabited as it was
wont to be, and the dweler tn rein
remembered US and came out trembling
on his sticks, young man too, as men
should go, at hfly-ive, yet 10 infrm to
work; and only anxious that this misera
BILE shelter should be his until he follows
his master to the churchyard.
We sat down and looked around us
how familiar it all was, yet how CHASTITY
over there the shepherd lived, and we
could Just see The traces OF the path from
his cottage to the lambing yard, now all
broken down and used for hay, scanty
crop of which had been gathered off the
arabic land, and sold to Il neighboring
shopkeeper, waiting his convenience there
until he chose to fetch it away; yonder,
too, once lived the well known laborers;
the little conveniences put up for them by
our host falling bit by bit luto decay, or
taken by passers by as the spirit moved
them, for there were none left to prevent;
the tidy garden gong back into wilder
ness, and the place where the beehives
stood, and where we helped Belsey Smith
to tie Grape ON the hives when her mother
died, as a polite intimation to them of the
family bereavement, was thick with
nettles, and detied our attempts to pass
into the field in the old accustomed way.
Indeed, the whole place was full of
the cottages were all like
this. all the men had gone up country"
all the girls had gone away to service, and
only old Cherritt was left to talk over old
times and tell us how the places had
fallen into decay; one after the other
farmers had tried but failed, owing to wet
seasons and the squire's rent; how the
squire had tried farming it himself, but
nad only cursed the times and the indie
oendence of the men who would no longer
slave themselves TO death for him to have
MS rent and to die finally worsted in the
their capital sunk in the land, |
md only pittance left for the wife who
lad fought the battle side by side with her 4
husband.
And she stood beside us there in the old :
house porch, and we thought over the
oast and even smiled at all the pictures l
We remembered so WE'LL the gate was
zone in truth, but there was the sty left,
where old Billy the pig lived, and ate
very chicken that crept into his warm /
traw bed; and as long as the sty remained, t
We should recollect how he reused himself, c
md tried to get over the gate after some $
pecally fat duckling, and only succeeded e
n hanging himself on the topmost bar, 4
where he was suspended squealing, while j
We all laughed too mucn to help him Il
ither backward or forward. a
The long row of sycamore trees was y
till standing, but no bees came there u
low, as they used to when the flowers 9
we're out below the leaves, and made such '
noise the while that the whole place was I
n regular charm" as they says in p
hose parts; and the slope after slope of b
ovely fields, where once corn waved in Y
he soft wind, and where our host waged c
perpetual war with the vel ow 'charlock," "
ave gone back TO rough sort of grass v
hat it will take months to eradicate; and a
nunths more before anything can be C
rown there again. |
But the very sight of them reminds us h
f our hosts CHEEKY patience and his "
nany difficulties, and how once, when he
hought he had beaten that yellow fend, il
nd he had come in rejoicing and rubbing
is hands to think of his enemys defeat, tc
e arose next morning to find u soft rain Il
ad fallen, which had brought it all up a
gain as thick as ever, and "l do not it
elieve," he said laughing then, even if Il
lefully, "that if l dug up spade full of d
arth from the bottom of a well, and tt
ung it abroad, the stuff would spring d
ven out of that as strong as ever it did" 8,
Every door is off in the stables, the W
orners of which are as if bitten off, and a
10 house is desolate; it is impossible to CO
elieve it the same in which we had so le
lany happy hours; but that it is shown 81
Y, tho upru hole in the wall whara ono ~