The Brookhaven leader., 1883-12-06

| midst OF her narration she would cease
for many minutes. | would not disturb
her, l knew, although could not then
analyze or describe such knowledge,
that she was lost in past events, for
which she could find no words, and that
involuntarily she had strayed off into
some beautiful, girlish by-path of remem-
brance-some summer evenings walk
with flowers and birds and skies and
twilight, hum of insects and youthful
hopes; some ruddy, healthful face was
before her-not the one she married.
Oh, 10! 1t rarely is.
Finally would say: "Well, gramma."
| always called her "gramma" Grand
ma or grandmother, full and round as
the schoolmaster pronounced it, would
have been all out of place in tina. old
kitchen, with its cranes, pot-hooks, cats
and cupboards. Had | spoken the word
in that manner, grandmother would
have started and said: "Why, Bub."
And had persisted in SO pronouncing
it she would have renounced me.
"Well, gramma!' and then she
would give q little start and long
sigh; she was back again the old woman
in the chimney corner. 1t was now no
such sky nor sunshine nor CHEEKY June
morning as in the long, long ago when
softly she sung to herself over her ork
and could live for hours in the thought
of that bit of finery to be worn for the
first time next Sabbath.
Only left, the old house and this boy
to hear her stories only one who
held a deep and common interest in her
cats and hens.
But changes came. Hers was feeble
resistance to the "march of progress
There was an enterprising son-in-law.
Little by little the property was ''im-
proved" A 'smart store occupied
the basement. Spectators and all
manner of business men were brought
home to dinner and lodged as guests in
the "spare bedroom. Exactly as an
Indian would regard such people in his
wigwam SO these did grandmother.
Their presence was as poison to her.
Then the clerks tormentcd her cats.
The horses of the "enterprising' SON
Flaw kicked and lamed her hens. This
individual had a mana for moving of
old buildings and erecting new. Barns
and warehouses went up all about, ever
curtailing the area of the pleasant little
lot behind the old house. The hillOck
in the back yard was lcveled. Enter
prise and improvement demanded the
destruction of the old cherry tree and a
row of ancient lilac bushes went down
before these twin monsters. Finally
the old ladys hen-coop must be re-
duced to one-half its original dimen-
sions, so that Buxton, the new shoe
dealer, should have more light in his
workshop. Buxton was u smooth,
sleek man, smooth and sleek-spoken
and an elder of the church.
He would come and argue
with grandmother regarding the cur
tailment of that hen-coop and pelt her
with appropriate quotations from what
he termed the Good Book Buxton
to her was a waxed-end cobbling iicnd.
But much of the hen-coop was shorn
away. 1t was change here, there, every
where. Grandmother hated change
The old house was large piece and
the only remaining piece of her younger
life. In association, it was the only
channel of communication left for her
with people long passed away. Every
bit "improved off" was so much drawn
from her life's blood. But an old lady
of seventy is no match for an center
prising' son-in-l law of thirty.
Our village was desolated one night
by a sweeping conflagration. 1t came
nearer and nearer ths old house. They
said it must be pulled down to stop the
flames. 1t was a cruel sentence, a
cruel fate Better had it burned. They
tore it to pieces with great iron hooks.
They gouged out the windows and bat
tered down partitions of rooms, which
to me and grandmother born, as both
of us had been there, seemed Us endur-
ing as the earth itself. While thus they
were tugging away at the stout oaken
frame, while bricks were tumbling down
the chimneys, plastering from the walls
and the whole edifice shaking to its
foundation, some one found grand
mother grooming over a few Goals in
the kitchen fireplace. She was led in
half-dazed reluctance away. She lived
but few months afterwards, for the
destruction of the old house snapped
the decayed strand which had bound
her to earth.-N Y. Graphic.