St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1884-11-27

once by the Biggses), and the youn;
wife that he had married, had fount
the atmosphere too full of disagreeabl,
electricity, and removed to New York
Take my word for it, said Mrs
Horatio Biggs, t.you are making mis-,
take.n
"Don't you expect us to support you
when you come back here without a
cent" said Mrs. Luke, ruefully signing
"Hiram's marriage has been his
ruin,n whispered Miss Josepha. 81
offered to pay his wife fifty cents a
day to help trim dresses in busy times,
but she declined it,"
Elizabeth always was too proud to
Putnp with us plain people," said Mrs
Biggs senior, with the quiet malice
that occasionally develops itself in a
mother law.
These. family details may in some
measure account for the animus dis
played over the waffles and angel-cake
at Miss Priekett's tea party that after
-7Nen,r shifts Miss Josepha, sac
cOrding to my idea of things, book
making amt no business at all. If it
was carpenteriug now, or the hardware
line, or if Elizabeth had energy enough
to go into the millinery trade, instead
of paying four dollars in good hard
money for spring hat, as she did
when she was staying here in April
But I've no faith in their calculations,
and never had"
Mr.. and Mrs. Hiram Biggs, however,
had ambitions which the family never
dreamed of. Hiram's tastes had al
ways been of a refined and literary
nature, and several simple stories of
rural life which he had ventured to
send with fear and trembling to pop
ular monthly magazine had been ac-
cepted and literally paid for. And
Elizabeth, though she could not trim
hats, and abhorred the dressmaking
business, had Il delicate fancy with her
pencil i'll illustrating the ideal dreams
of others, and she too tried her lucll,
and succeeded in the artistic world
much to her own amazement. And as
time went on their good fortune be
came more pronounced. Mr.. Biggs
wrote satirical novel, under the nom
de plume of "Paul de Savez,r which
had wide and brilliant circulation:
Mrs. Biggs illustrated Il popular poem
which was brought out in an edition de
lure at Christmas. And the young
couple became the fashion
The Biggses of Biggsville, not being
literary, were a long time in finding
out that their kins- people were sue
ceeding in the world At first they
declined to credit the thing at all, hav-
ing settled idea that the ''bOok- max
ing business" rs they persisted in call
ing 1T, was but Il grade above the avO-
cation of the g-picker. But when at
last they realized matters, they decid
ed that Hiram and Elizabeth ought to
he encouraged.
"Fve never been to New York"
said old Mr.. Biggs. "Folks tell me it's
quite Il stirring place. guess I'll go
and stay spell with Hiram's folks.
And it'll be Il good opportunity for
mother to buy herself that new ala
packy gownd she's been cacIlIin' about
thiS4svcp so long"
81 don't see why ! shouldn't see the
world as well as other folks" remark
ed Mrs. Biggs senior.
81 shouldn't wonder if | went along
too, to get look at the fall lashi0ns,"
said Miss Josepha.
"Well, while we're about it," sug-
gested Mrs. Horatio, ''why don't we
make up II party and get excursion
tickets cheap? I've always wanted to
see what the city was like myself, only
| don't care about paying hotel prices.n
Mrs. Luke entered with ardOr into
the scheme, and the old man sat down,
with single sheet of fibrous paper, a
muddy inkstand, and a stumpy steel
pen tied on II stick with thread, to
concoct letter, in which he formally
notified "Hiram's folks" of the pleasure
which they might prepare themselves
to expect.
The document was brought just as
Hiram Biggs was getting into the
spirit of his mornings work i'll his
study, with Elizabeth dreaming mt an
adjoining table, and the breath of
vase of Niphetos roses perfuming all
the room.
''My dear" said he, looking aghast
at his wife, "what are we to do? All
the family are coming to visit us
With the proof f-sheets of my last novel
coming in, and your etchings of 'Wild
Rose only half completed ~
awe must do the best we can. Hi
RAM said Elizabeth, perplexedly
knitting her pretty brows together.
"My darling child, there's no best
about it," groaned Hiram, tearing his
hair-which. being brown and curly,
looked none the less picturesque for
the operation. "You don't know the
peculiarities of the Biggs family as /
do. You will be dragged up and down
Grand Street, Eighth Avenue, and the
BOwery from morning until night
you will have to visit every show,
theatre and picture gallery in New
York, and pay all the bills. Your
housekeeping will be picked to pieces,
yOur dress criticised, and ten to one
my mother will offer to come here and
take charge of the baby, while Josepha
will volunteer to improve your most
cherished drawings.n
Mrs. Hiram Biggs glanced with ter
rOr at the plump baby who, in charge
of its white capped nurse, was being
carried up and down the pavement in
front of the house. Then she looked
piteOusly around the pretty Brussels
carpeted library, with its deep Grim
son -curtained bay windows, its tall
DracHna plants in majolica vases, its
oil-paintings and japanese scrolls, its
cage of green parOquets, and shelves
of china and bric-a- brac, and pictured
to herself the whole Biggs family
spreading themselves over its sacred
precincts. She was only human, too,
this young wife she could scarcely
help remembering how Mrs. Horatio
had snubbed her when she first came.
timid and shrinking bride, to the
Biggs farm house how Mrs. Luke had
once refused to lend her twenty-five
cents, III Hiram's absence, to pay the
charges on telegram, alleging as "A
reason "that it wasn't never good pol
icy to have business matters between
relations - nor how old Mrs Riu1s had