St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1885-01-29

! before Two uncased windows, and his
! fathers old store desk had fallen to his
lunmercantiIe use. Its lock was never
opened unless Willie had something
! which lie could force himself to show
| to his mother. That ripe instant ar
irving. he sought her in her kitchen,
her garden. or at her spinning wheel
upstairs, and seized her by the hand.
She went with him to the parlOrs, they
fastened the doors, Willie undid his
desk. and placed his paper in her fin
| gers The paper itself was sometimes
/ brown, sometimes the blue cap left
! from the store, sometimes gllt-edged
note paper having pencilled landscapes
along the marquis, or the flowers he
rhvmed off done in water-colOrs for
! his hand was as skillful as his eye was
| discerning The poems were usually
short, and sensitive in rhyme and
rhythm. Wiliie's themes were the
common sights and the common pa
! thos or humOr of the situations in
which he found the people around
| him his Interpretation of the tiicker's
! feelings his delight in certain thick
! tieeces of grass; the panorama OF sky
and field as it marched across his eye /;
! the grotesque though heartily human
! family party made 10y old man Parsons
and his wife, where half of their de-
scendants, unable to get into the small
/ house. sat on the fence while the rest
ate dinner. Willie was deaf, but he
| had inward music. Every smooth and
! LIQUID stanZa was like wine to his
mother. She compared his poems to
| Burns, and could not lind the "Moun
! tain Daisy a whit better than her
poets song about the woods in frost.
! Even Mr.. HARRISON thought well Of
| Wilie's performances. They were
smuggled to him by the mother, and
carefully returned to their place when
the poet was out of the house. Mr..
! HARRISON knew all that was going on
in the world, \ dozen times a year
he left the grinding OF the mill to meet
his old Chums at the capital, or to
quicken the action of his blood IN
Chicago. 4 couple of stimulating
DAYS tinctured and made endnrable his
month of mill work. A man of luxu-
rious tastos cannot lose bis tastes with
his means He was Judge of poets.
and said Willie might as well take to
poetry As to anything, for business did
not pay man of sound faculties in
these days.
The hum of bees could be heard all
around this unfinished brick house
growing messy ut the gables, and its
shadow was long on the afternoon sun
shine. 1t was that alert and happy
time of wear when the eaIth's sap
starts new from winter distillatiOD.
You could hear the voices of children
calling in play as they loitered home
from school the days were so long
that the COWS would not come up the
pasture until nearly seven o'clock.
Willie trudged across lots to supper.
Mrs. HARRISON met him at the north
side of the house, having her garden
knife and rake in her hands. She put
them OH the stepless front-dOor sill,
which had never been and never
would bc pressed 10y the foot of an ar
irving guest. This stone sill was high
enough for Il seat, and she sat down,
fitting her sun bonnet back, and smil-
ing at Willie. He was Toured from
head to- foot. Little of his boyish
beauty except its clear innocence re-
manned to him. His nose was large
for his head, and on his head the au-
burn curls were shOrn to Il thin crisp
ing layer.
His young sister was putting sup
per on the table in the dining room,
his brother was listing with another
boy on the railroad, and up the COW
lane came his father with the slow
step and somewhat of the ponderOus
white presence of the walking statue
in Don GiOUdnni.
But, closest knit of all this family,
mother and son talked together in 81
lence, some birds in the mulberry tree
over their heads making the only call
ing and replying that could he heard.
Before Willie reached her, he held up
his hands and signed in the deaf mute
language.
The preacher has come back"
Mrs. HARRISON raised her hands and
darted her fingers into various shapes,
saying thereby, "Did you see him p.
NO" Willie replied, as swiftly 81
only saw his coffin in the wagon and
Nancy Ellen sitting beside it. She had
to bring him the whole twenty miles
from where lie died, in a wagon"
because it wasn't on IL railroad p
Willie nodded.
His mother wove on: ''Po0r Nancy
Ellen Her father wouldn't let her
have the preacher for so long, and
turned her off when she did marry
him Now she's a widow in her honey
moon, and old man Martin saying he
told her preacher as old as himself
wasn't any match for her. Did you
see her father How did he act ~
Gle got into the wagon 10y the driV
err said Willie's fingers.
''Wsll. that was something for hin"
"Aud they drove to his place"
II suppose he'll let her come back
aud live at home now"
II wish YOU had seen Nancy Ellen"
PPM going TO sac her after the milk
ing is done" /
.'Seen her by the preacher" insisted
WilHe's passes. "She looked like a
captive coming in chains to Rome"
''Yes. IN be bound she did. Every
jolt of that twenty miles is stamped in
her mind
Il wish" flashed Willie, 81 knew
what the preacher sung to himself all
along the road"
"What notion You'll have to fix
it mp i'm poetry now. won't you y
Willie shook his head many times J
aud Redeemed. "You said the preach |
cr used to sing home from meeting in /
the dark
Eyes, he did affirmed Mrs. Harbi- /
son. and Nancy Ellen used to listen /
for him 10 so by their place" /
Their talk paused, aud Willie looked .
up at the birds in the mulberry. Hav-
ing afterward caught his mothers eye, |
he wOve ont slowly,
When in the tree above his head
The sap goes tingling through the bark
She viii I, member il dead
And hear him singing in the dark.
"Oh, Willie, is that the first verse OF