Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1886-12-25
In Holiday Time.

On lonely stretch of the Jersey coast there
lived, few years ago, old Grandmother O.,
with her unmarried daughter, Hetty. few
fishermen and farmers occupied the houses
that stood at long intervals along the coast.
Even in winter there were frequent merry
markings among the Young people, and even
the older folks. Hetty's compatriots had their
tea-drinkings and cuttings; but grandmother
who was nearly eighty, had not left the CHM
ney-corner for years. A few old women who
had been her schoolmatts in childhood still
lived here and there in these farm-houscs, but
their journeyings, like her own, were only
from the bed to the fireplace. They were so far
removed from the present busy life about them
that when they talked, as they did necessarily,
of the companions ard frolics and events of
their YOUTH it sounded to the young people
like the whispers of ghosts looking back into
a world long since forgotten.
Hetty O., coming home one day from q
holiday merry making, bethought her how sad
and solitary her grandmother's life was.
''Why should she, too, not have party" she
sand, 'of her own companions? There shall
not be young woman among them. People
at eighty need society and pleasure as well as
at eighteen"
She carried out her idea. Seven of her old
friends were invited to spend the afternoon.
1t was singular to see the excitement which the
proposed party produced. The invited guests,
who had been invited nowhere for years, for
got their aches and ailments, and were more
eager and happy than children. Every family
joined In preparing its especial grandmother
for the festivity, and, as with every new idea
that is wholesome and sweet, everybody said,
'Why did we never think of it before?"
The mldwinter day arrived and proved to be
sunny and clear, to the delight of the many
dim, anxious eyes that watched for it.
comfortable family carriage, with shawls
draping it inside to keep out every draught,
brought the guests at noon. There were eight
feeble old women, whose lives had been passed
near together, who had many interests in COM
mon, but who had not met for years.
You can imagine the keen delight of such a
meeting! suddenly to pass out of the death-in-
life of old age into gay youth again, to be for
one brief day, not grandmother, rottering on
the brink of the grave, but ''Molly or Jenny"
with those who arc supposed to know how
bright your eyes were and how rosy your
cheeks, and to whom you will never grow old!
Hetty gave them two hours of talk together,
and then brought them into a comfortable din
ner. After it was over, they were seated, each
in her armchair, around the great fire, and fell
again to talking of old times.
''You had the best voice among us, Peggy"
said Grandmother O., to feeble old woman
of seventy. "Sing something"
She sang g hymn, and all the trembling,
cracked voices joined in it,
An hour before sunset they prepared to so
home.
'We shall never meet again, girls" said the
Oldest of the party. 81 think we should be
happier for the rest of our lives if We should
pray together"
So the old friends, who were nearing the grave
so fast, knelt side by side while they prayed in
silence. Then they were driven safely home.
1t was a simple matter but it lighted up the
dull, sad quiet of her last days for each of
these poor souls with loving, friendly cheer
Is there any sad, solitary life fading out at
your own hearth into which you can bring hap
piness?