Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1885-11-27
AUNT MrTABLEs THINGS.

The orange glow Of the March twilight
threw the leahess copses into strong relief
the little brook had burst its thick crust of
ice, and sang merrily under the velvet fringes
of the pussy willows, and up from the woods
there came an indescribable odor of spring
A red flag, rolled up and tied around its stick
by hemp string, lay just inside the door
yard, when Mrs. Grigson came in with the
last pail of water that she should ever draw
from the old we'll She sighed as she filed
the squat copper kettle and hung it over the
ere.
''The auction sale is to be to morrow, " said
she. land l never was so glad of anything in
all my born days. Such time as I've had
cleanin' up and scrubbin' down and scourin'
and polishin'! There amt q bone in my
body but aches"
It's all time and trouble thrown away"
sepulchraly observed Miss Ketchum. who
had dropped in on her way from the store I;
''the old traps won't sell for sixpence apiece
you see If they do"
but the things amt no use to me, !" said
Mrs. Grigson, "and need little money so
awful bad AS for the poor luck I've had,
straight through, there amt no calculatin' it.
Even down to my last gold dollar !"
"Eh 2" said Miss Ketohum. Being of a
mtlhnCnbi1 hht hhcu " hoht huu IctiAhls,
although personally her sympathies were en-.
listed on the widow Grigson's side.
"Why, it was last week." said Mrs Grig.
son, in the level complaining tone that al
ways reminded you of the little brook down
the hollow, brother Lyman left his little
Brazil monkey here overnight. He was
a-calculstin' a to Sell it to Mrs. Gartney's
little boy, John Henry. And eff you'll be-
lieve me, the mis'abe critter swallered the
gold dollar I'd left on my bureau to pay the
meat peddler with, and dropped my silver
specs down the we'll"
LA !" said Miss Kstchum.
81 seen him champin' it between his jaws, q"
said Mrs Grigson, "and shake and squeeze
him as would couldn't get it out of him -
"Well, never did I" remarked the guest
ut did seem as ef that was the last straw
that broke the camers back" sighed Mrs.
Grigson. Brother Lyman he was dreadful
consarned about it, but he couldn't do moth
in for me. He offered to kill the monkey.
but | knowed how disappointed John Henry
Gartney would be, and, arter all, the critter
had acted only accordin' to its natur', and
they was to pay brother Lyman a dollar and
half for him. As for the specs, brother
Lyman fished em up with a long pole with q
crooked pin hitched on to the end ont. The
glasses was broke, but the frame is good yet.
I'm calkistin' to get EN- mended when"
Wonder how much the feather beds II go
for ?" said Miss Keichum, breaking in on the
monotonous refrain.
''There amt no telln', said Mrs Grigson.
"Theyre dreadful old. Aunt Mittable she'd
KEEP house for forty year, and never had
nothin' new. / don't s'pose an auction sale
will pay, hut what else could 1 do with sll
the old duds? Squire Daggett wants pos
session Of the place at once, and"
"Aint gwine to sell these ere house plants,
be ye ?" said Miss Ketchum, nodding toward
q accompanied stand in the corner.
"Brother Lyman thought they might fetch
few cents" said Mrs. Grigson. And the
stand ought to be worth quarter of dollar.
1t had new coat of paint a year ago.
give one Jrusalem cherry-tree to Abigail
cupboards. She's been dreadful neighborly,
and she wouldn't take penny for what she
did"
"More fool she" curtly observed Miss
Ketchum. "Td like that thar monthly rose
with the striped blooms on it,"
1T is pretty" said Mrs. Grigson, ignoring
the broad hint. "And 1 guess it IL sell cheap.
I'd like some friend to hev il, for the slip il
growed from was give me by Grigson the
very first year we was married"
Aud as she was not invited to stay to tea,
Miss Ketchum at last went away, leaving Mrs
Grigson sitting sorrowfully before the fire oi
discarded barrel slaves, ruinOus packing box
es, ancient chair legs, and wooden stools
which had absolutely refused to be made ca
pable of further service. "Aunt Mittable"-
which name was pefverson of the good
old New England prenomen Mehitable-had
been all the mother she had known, and il
seemed lonesome enough to be sitting there
in the empty house with Aunt Mittable tucked
| away in the corner of the frozen church
yard. Her husband was dead, and her three
| little children we're struggling up in the worlC
as best they could. She had had position
as ianitress in a public school, but she hac
lost it when she came to Mullen Farm L
nurse Aunt Mittable in her last illness anC
now she scarcely knew which way TO turn
Brother Lyman, her only living relative, wal
poorer than herself-a good-hearted, empty
| pocketed man, who occupied some position
| on a sailing vessel which piled between Bos
ton and the Azore islands. There was
mortgage on the place which had swallowed
up all aspirations in the direction of selling
| it, and Mrs. Grigson family hoped that tn,
auction sale might help to pay the EXPENSE
| of her old auDts burial Otherwise she die
not, to use her own expression, ''see her waI
clear"
Mrs. Gigson was not sentimentalist.
ianitress in a public sohool-building, with
forefnger roughened by the coarsest needle
work, and mind narrowed down by the daill
tread-mill of the most grovelling cares, ha
not much time for that sort of indulgence
but as she sat there drinking an infusion o
the weakest tea, and watching the yellow
March moonlight lay the perfect pattern o
the uncurtsinsd window on the carpetles
floor while the barrel slaves smouldered in
to oarmine- tinted ashes, she could but remem
Der the days when she had hoped for such
different life.
"I was gal then, thought Mrs. Grigson
''It didn't seem as If there was anything i'm
possible. Well, well, s'pose most folks ar
disapp'nted jest as bad as I be, Of they liv
long enough"
Andthen the poor widow went TO bed to kee
warm; and all night long the yellow moon
light flooded the solitary room where Aun
Mttable had died, and solitary crick
ct sang on the hearth stone where the Te'
ashes had long since faded into the dust.
The morrow daWned wild, bright an
windy, as March mornings often come rnsh
ing over the bleak Connecticut hill. .cresti
The auctioneer arrived in one horse bugg
from the village; the neighbors assemble
from all the points of the compass. For !
FeltVille Four Corners people entertained th
same sentiment toward an auction sale 9
New Workers feel toward a private view {
the Academy of Design, or flower show 1
Madison Square Garden. Miss Ketohum WI
there in her best dyed shawl, and the bonn'
which the irreverent youth of the neighbo
hood had ohristened cold Plymouth Rock,
from the fossilized appearance of its featt
ers Squire Daggett drove down in his fan
lily carry.all with the six Misses Dagget
The parson and the parsons wife were ther
J "A iuo.aaafinf hnlataru an
counting cups and saueers. A man who We
vaguely reported to be an emissary from a
old curiosity shop in the city was prowlir
6 about with a memorandum-book under b
i arm. Everybody was there, even down
; the village fool who had been allowed
come with his grandmother, under solen
4 promise of mot speaking a word the who