Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-12-23


bing his bald head dreamily. "O-o-ohp'
echoed Julia, as she laid the letter down on
the tea-table
Rev. Cephas Huntington ministered to a
small flock among the Vermont hills, where
he dispensed the Gospel, and was father
and friend to his scattered congregation, at
a salary of five hundred dollars year. He
had little farm, for he had married a
country clergyman'S daughter, thrifty
girl who had a thousand dollars left her by
amaiden aunt. Cephas inherited the same
sum from his father, who was a farmer
and had two children, Cephas and Joseph.
Cephas had worked his way through col
lege and theological seminary with deter
mination and courage, and preached his first
sermon the week before his father died;
the mother had gone before. Joe took his
money, resulting from the sale of home
stead and farm, to New York. laid it up
safely in an old and respectable bank, went
into wholesale store as porter, and, having
that money-making gift that Is as distinct a
talent as talent for music or painting,
went up and up till he was partner where
he had been porter, and went to Europe
with his pretty wife and baby to be the
resident member of the firm in Paris.
No more children came to Joseph, but
very much money did; dollars grow; they
re-duplicate themselves; for Ssunto him that
hath shall be given," is a law of the heather
as well as the Christian world. In all
these years he had rarely seen Cephas; in
fact, only twice Once he went up to
Oriole, when Cephas was first settled there,
tospend Thanksgiving but he had found the
frugal and pastoral simplicity very tedious /;
once again he went up to say goodbye
when he left for a long residence abroad ::
just days visit, in which he saw Mrs
Cephas sweet and blooming, and his broth
er well and happy. No children had come
to the fireside then.
After Joseph went abroad he wrote once
or twice to Cephas; then business absorbed
him; his wife, a gay New York girl, knew
and cared nothing about her brother-in-
law; she was occupied with the gayeties
and fashions of Paris, and her one child, a
daughter, who was named Mary and called
Marie. There were no more children in
Joseph's household; children are so incon-
venient to fashionable woman who hates
to grow old.
But the letter that caused such exclama-
ton at Parson HuntingtOn's tea-table was
letter from his brother. Joseph had made
great fortune in Europe, and was coming
home to enjoy it.
We shall come over in the Australasia
he wrote ''thOse Cunard steamers are so
slow and stuffy; and we expect to arrive
in New York the 23d of December. I've
brought you some Christmas presents, old
fellow, and we want to come and eat our
Christmas dinner with you, not to be given
over to hotel fare. We shall leave our bag
gage at the Brevoort, and stop there till
we find house for the winter. So kill the
fatted calf, old Ceph, and make ready for
%ln9 h 4
better shape than that boy did. Lou and
Marie send love, etc. / have studied the
trains in the Tribune, and allowing for a
small delay at custom-house, and fuss about
storing baggage, find that by getting up to
White K liver junction over night we can get
to Maiden station by twelve o'clock on the
18th, and shall expect to smell that roast
veal when we open your door, 1t will be a
lark to see you again. Goodbye till then
"BRoTHER JOE"
Well might Mrs. Cephas look dismayed,
and the minister and Julia exclaim, for new
er in the history of that little village
nestled among the great green hills ten
miles from any railway, had Christmas
been kept as a feast before; it was not
orthodox! The church in Oriole had been
formed at first under the leadership of a
Scotch Presbyterian minister, who was
sent TO these few sheep in the wilderness
fresh from the schools of his native land
He wanted to live in America and preach
the Gospel there, and his Scotch tongue
stood IN his way, as well as his rigid creed
and stiff manner; so he was sent out to
Oriole, and there he lived and died; then
the church slipped into the hands of a blue
Congregationalist, who simply changed the
form Of its government, but preached the
creed of his predecessor, and also spent
lifetime in this solitary nook. Cephas
Huntington had not meddled with the ira
ditions and customs he found there; he
preached long political sermon on State
Fastday, and another on Thanksgiving, but
Good Friday, Easter and Christmas, those
sad and glad remembrances of the Lord
he loved, he let severely alone. And then
again what should they do about dinners
Turkeys had gone by with the day of their
annual massacre, chickens were over
grown into laying pullets.
Doesn't he know it isn't the time of year
for veal!" simple Mrs. Huntington said,
Indignantly, breaking in upon her hus-