The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-09-09
What Happened.

wheel, spinning flax, just as she had sat
on many summer, autumn, winter
and spring evening. All was still;
flowers and insects seemed dropping
asleep; little birds peeped drowsily in
their nests, and the whole world seemed
as quiet and steady-going as the old
clock in the corner-when something
happened!
But this is not the good old-fashioned
way of beginning a story. l will start
again:
In little post town, among the
Highlands of Scotland, far away from
any great city, there lived, few years
ago, a woman much respected and we'll
beloved, though of lowly birth and
humble fortunes-one Mrs. Jean An
derson. She had been left a widow,
with one son, the youngest and last of
several promising children. She was
poor, and her industry and economy
were taxed to the utmost to keep her.
self and her son, who was fine, clever
lad, and to give him the education he
ardently desired AT the early age of
sixteen Malcolm Anderson resolved to
seek his fortune in the wide world, and
became sailor. He made several
like the good boy that he was, brought
home some useful present to his
mother, to whom he gave, also, large
portion of his earnings. But he never
liked seafaring life, though he grew
strong and stalwart in it; and when
about nineteen he obtained an humble
position in large mercantile house in
Calcutta, where-being shrewd, enter
prising and honest, like most of his
conference.-the gradually rose to a
place of trust and importance, and
finally to a partnership. AS his for
tunes improved, his mothers circum-
stances were made easier. He RENTED
money enough to secure to her the old
cottage home, repaired and enlarged,
with garden and lawn; and placed at
her command, annually, sum sufficient
to meet all her wants, and to pay the
wages of faithful servant, or rather
companion, for the brisk, Independent
old lady stoutly refused to be served by
any one.
Entangled in business cares, Mr.. An
derson never found time and freedom
for the long voyage and a visit home,
till at last failing health and the neces-
sity of educating his children compelled
him to abruptly wind up his affairs and
return to Scotland. He was then man
somewhat over forty, but looking far
older than his years, showing all the
usual i'll effects of the trying climate of
India. His complexion was a sallow
brown; he was gray and somewhat bald,
with here and there a dash of white in
his dark auburn beard; he was thin and
little bent, but his youthful smile re-
manned full of quiet drollery, and his
eye had not lost all its old gleeful sparkle
by pouring over ledgers and counting
rupees.
He had married a country-woman
the daughter of Scotch surgeon; had
two children, a son and a daughter. He
did not write to his good mother that he
was coming home, as he wished to sur
prise her and test her memory of her
sailor boy.
The voyage was made in safety, and
one summer afternoon Mr.. Malcolm
Anderson arrived with his family at his
native town. Putting up at the little
inn, he proceeded to dress himself in a
suit of sailor-clothes, and then walked
out alone. BY by-path he well knew
and then through a shady lane, dear to
illo JOuhS, hdLCl-hullluS bdNb, al
strangely unchanged, he approached
his mothers cottage. He stopped for
few moments on the lawn outside to
curb down the heart that was bounding
to meet that mother and to clear his
eyes of sudden mist of happy tears
Through the open window he caught a
glimpse of her, sitting alone at her spin
ning-wheel, as in the old time. But
alas, how changed Bowed was the
dear form once so erect, and silvereC
the locks once so brown, and dimmeC
the eyes once so full of tender bright.
ness, like dew-sprent violets. But the
voice with which she was grooming
softly to herself was still sweet, anC
there was on her cheek the same lovely
peach-bloom of twenty years ago.
AT length he knocked, and the dea
remembered voice called to him in thu
simple, old-fashioned way y" Coon
ben" Come i'm! The widow rose a
sight of stranger, and courteously
offered him chair. Thanking her il
an assumed voice, somewhat gruff, h,
sank down, as though wearied, sayin!
that he was wayfarer, strange to tn,
country, and asking the way to the mex
town. The twilight favored him in hi
little ruse; he saw that she did no
recognize him, even as one she ha'
ever seen. But after giving him tn,
information he desired, she asked hin
if he was a Scotchman by birth. " Yes
madam" he replied; but l have beer
away in foreign parts many years.
doubt if my own mother would know M
now, though she was very fond of M
before | went to sea-"
"Ah, mon! it's little we ken aboo
mithers, gin we think sac. can tel
we there is ma mortal memory lik
theirs" the widow somewhat warml
replied; then added" And where ha,
we been for sac lang time that we ha
lost a. the Scotch fra your speech?"
In India-in Calcutta, madam"
"Ah, then it's likely we ken some
thing o. my son, Mr.. Malcolm Ander
son."
Anderson" repeated the visitor
as though striving to remember
"There be many of that name in Ca
cutta; but is your son a rich merchant
and man about my age and size, wit
something such fgure-head?"