St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1884-01-24
A Visit Next Door.
BY SARAH ORNE JEwETT.

! / ne Two IdInlll6S NtIt
posed to he good friends enough, and
were apt TO he spoken of i'll the same
breath by the rest of their townspeOple
! They went to the same church, but the
Filmores did not like the new minister
very well, while the Grangers did, and
! that was one thing which made them
| less intimate, and more suspicious OF
each others acts and opinions. Dun
dalk was not very large village.
| The time had been when everybody
knew everybody but, within the last
few years since a new box factory had
been started, it had grown very fast
and changed good deal and many
strangers had moved in to take ad-
vantage of the good, steady wages
which the company paid its work
people. But the Grangers aud Fill
morcs had always lived in Dundalk,
and next door to each other ut that.
| When the two women weIe younger
and had been first married they were
very good friends, and used to 60 back
and forward from house to house n
good deal, and even had a little gate
way between the back yards, so that
| they used to run across for morning
calls, and to ask advice and assistance
about the great problems of house
keeping and of taking care of babies,
and later they used to show each other
patterns of the children's clothes, and
Mrs. Granger would find ont whether
Nelly Fillmore and Jack were going to
! the singing school before she quite
decided about letting her own Dick
and Mary 90.
But as years went on they saw each
other less rather than more. Dick
Granger had built rabbit hutch
against the fence where the picllets had
been off. and when he asked his moth
er if she had any objection she said no,
for not only was she certain that it was
the best place in the yard for the rab-
bits, upon which Dick had set his heart,
but she had grown so stout during the
last winter that she found the little
gateway altogether too narrow for com
| fort. And presently IL hedge of Nor
way spruces which the families had
dubbed together to buy aud set ont,
and which they had said then should
always he clipped and kept down, and
| by and by the fence could be taken
| away together-sprang up, tall and
thick, and made il wall which could not
| he seen over. Then Mrs. Fillmore and
Mrs. Granger grew buster and buster,
and while the children were all at
school and growing fast and wanting
many things there was little time for
visiting, and sometimes there would
be week when the neighbOrS did not
speak to each other-the two women, |
mean, who had nobody to work with
them, and who found it hard for one
pair of hands to do all the work and
wished more and more for the time
when the children would be old enough
to help.
The Grangers, as time went on, were
most prosperous and after while,
when his wife had had sharp attack
of lung fever which left her weak and
miserable, Henry Granger insisted that
she should look about for Il good, strong
girl who could do most of the house
work. 1t was by no means easy to
find such IA person in Dundalk, where
there was so small Il foreign pOpula-
ton, and all the young people who
factory. But the right girl did turn
up and Mrs. Granger took great COM
fort in her.
IltI OWL lie III AItntt Oui ullttilN
in new directions. She had had little
time or strength for gardening of late
years, and she was fond of making
things to give the house a pleasant,
! bright look. She had wished to be
more active in matters connected with
the church, and she had Il fondness for
reading which she often put by with Il
| sigh because the baking and sweeping
and all the housekeeping used so near
! ly all her time and tired her ont at any
rate. Still she had firm belief that if
one really cares tor thing it will
not be crowded out of ones life entire
! ly, and having will for reading she
had always cOntrived to find il way.
The FilmnrcS We're getting on COM
fortably enough. too, though not near
! " so well us their neighbors. do not
| know that there was any real jealousy,
but Mrs. Fillmore fell into way of
saying, "You know you have so much
more than we to do with - and she
sometimes said, "YOu lucky people"
and oftener, ave poor folks" which
was uncomfortable and fretful. And
when Mary Granger's father bought
her piano and said that she could
! take music lessons, and everybody
! knew that Nelly Fillmore had twice the
talent of any girl in town, and could
sing like Il bird, while her ncighbOr
could not sing ut all, it really seemed
too much to bear. Then the new min
lister went often to the Grangers, who
had been among the first to welcome
and uphold him, and Mrs. Fillmore did
not like him. either as man or as Il
preacher. As she sat by the window
sewing, she did not like to see him
through a gap in the spruce trees go
ing in ut the next door in free and
friendly way.
The Grangers had spoken more than
once about cutting down some of thu
boundary trees, which were growing
faster and faster and were shading
their garden a good deal, but the Fill
mores would not consent. 1t seemed
il pity, for their own house was made
dark in winter and damp in summer
by SO much shade. Their hens bur.
rcwed under them in dusty hollows
and even pOked themselves through
into the next yard where they did pro.
voking damages. and once or twice the
Changers complained. The only visit
ing that was done between the elders
of the family became entirely formal
Henry Granger and George Fillmore NJ
longer strOlled into each others yards
to smoke or talk together or to ex-
change newspapers, and when theil
wives exchanged visits they did it a,
formally as if the houses were a milk
apart and they went i'll and out o
the front gates to see each other, Will
their bonnets on, instead of keeping
up the friendly old fashions. Th,
rabbit hutch had been knocked t.
pieces long before, but the fence hat
been securely rebuilt. Sometimes
| ,rI,,, ,l,o,- +,Il,a1 toratbar +haI bad ,