Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1888-01-05
A GRATEFUL SAVAGE.
Ny Great Grandmother's New
Years Caller.

grcat-grandmOther- grandmother
mother. / have, and she is the dearest
old lady in the world.
She wears black gown, a little
white muslin handkerchief over her
shoulders, and a white lace cap over
her brown false front, that all old
ladies used to wear.
She has fine gray eyes. and nice
teeth-all her own, too-and is ninety
years old. She reads the papers, and
knows all that is going on; and worries
over the accidents just as much as if
her own folks were in them.
She is fond of politics, for she and
grandfather-dead this thirty year
used to keep a roadside tavern. where
all the famous lawyers stopped on
their way to H, where the county
court was held. Daniel Webster had
stopped at the tavern. and many other
distinguished men.
Grandma loves to tell of those days
while she knits in the freight. She
moves her needles rs swift as ma
chine, and can knit in the dark. She
taught me to knit, too; but think she
found stupid pupil, though she never
said SO. She does all kinds of knitting;
scarfs. mittens, wristers and stockings,
and when she was young she used to
weave, and made her own linen for
sheets and bedding when she was mar
ried.
Once grandma visited Boston; only
thirteen she was. yet remembers every
detail of her visit Her uncle, an ex-
Governor, gave grand balls and par
ties, and the shy little country girl had
a glimpse Of the fine manners and gay
life of Boston's old aristocracy.
But she loved the country best, and
married a neighbours son, and went
with him to an unbroken forest
way up in the north of Maine, and
lived pioneer life in all its hardships
of want and cold.
She had eight children, and made
every stitch of their clothing. as well
as her husbands. and taught them,
too. There was no school-house near.
and her only book was the Bible. and
out of this they learned to read and
spell. She had all the work a farmers
wife must do. and fancy knew little
rest. There are few such workers
nowadays.
Grandma's best stories are about In
dians. There were rowing bands of
them in Maine fifty and sixty years
ago. and some times they were not
peaceably disposed, especially when
farms were isolated and far from
neigEbors' help. How many times
they plundered and burned, and how
many families they murdered and
scalped, will never be known; for who
could tell. in the depths of forest.
what blackened clearing meant?
1t might be only place burned by
those mysterious forest fires; who was
to know it was the ashes of once
happy homes?
A few years ago grandma was down
to our house on her regular winters
visit, and she found us girls much ex-
cited about New Years calls. In a
small country town. few people receive
calls on New Years Day, and mother
had not done so since we were too
little to remember. The last day of
the old year we were talking with
grandma in the hour before tea, when
it was too dark to read or sew, and too
light for lamps. Of course grandma
was knitting. this time a big pair of
mittens for an old man that used to
saw wood for us Grandma had no
dced his mittens were ragged. and
finding he had no one to care for
him. took it upon herself. and gave
him three pairs of good yarn stock
ings before she went away. and he
said:
'.Now marin. you be one of the good
o!d-fashioned sort the Lord reward
ye."
You never heard about my New
Years caller, did you. girls?'' said
grandma
NO." we cried. eagerly.
WAS it in Boston, at the Gov
ern0r So" asked Jen.
1T must have been grand there,
said Mamie, half-enviously.
NO." replied grandma, smiling on
pretty Mamie. 1T was in the first
days of my married life. was mar
Tied. you know. when I was only sew
enteen. l stayed ut home with mother
that year; then Joseph and I, and your
great-uncle Rufus. two-months-old
baby. moved up to the north of where
we'd been living and pretty nigh on
the borders of Canada.
I'VE were twenty miles from neigh
bors. and found our way to them by
spotted trees-trees we'd marked. you
know. for the woods are confusing.
eft was lonely like for me; but
Joseph seldom left the farm. and then
saly to 60 to the mill dirty miles