Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1889-06-10
"sYou don't say = saws Peter. with

Peter.
"'And Lucindy Marks l says.
"'Why Abby Paxton says Peter
faint you heard nothing
"No,' says l, what do you mean
octave they come yit ?'asks Peter
and when 1 said they had, he asks
"How're they making out?'
{" They do seem rather quiet,
says I.
"'Do they speak at all ?
81 do'no as they DOL was 'bleeg
ed to say.
Must be jolly quiltin',' says
Peter, and then he lay back on the
seat of his old buggy and laughed.
well, what is it?' says l, pretty
sharp, for l see had got into some
kind of a muss.
"'Why,' says Peter, 'them -four
women got into some kind of fuss
day before yesterday, over some quar-
rel their children had at school, and
they all happened to meet at the
school-house, and when they parted
company they all vowed and declared
they'd never speak to each other
again long as they lived and breathed
and kept their senses, and here you
have gone and got them identical
four women shet up together lin a
room, and air going to keep them
there all day.
cam that man jest lay back laugh
ing.
g You'd better turn them loose or
there'll be damage DONE said Peter,
as he driv away chuckling to himself,
to spread the news.
"Well, l felt terrible. We lived
on farm a mile from the village,
and | hadn't heard a word about the
fuss. l went back to the house and
there they sat, their needles flying,
but their tongues still, which must
have been a dreadful trial to Melissy
and Caisty, but they seemed to be
bearin' up pretty we'll under it, and
not one of 'em showed signs of Civ
ing in.
eff one of them wanted the thread
and it happened to be at the other
end of the quilt, she'd shake it until
the spool rolled to her, and they'd
git up and walk clean round the quilt
after the scissors fore they'd ask for
'em.
$50 it went on until noon, and we
had dinner. My husband was a jolly,
joky kind of man, and he made it
so lively at the table that we got
along firs-rate, but when he'd gone,
and the women had gone back to the
quilt, they were silent as the grave.
81 kept talking in to one or the
other of them as I washed the dishes,
and they'd answer back sprightly
enough, but never a word to each
other.
"Soon as I'd done my dishes l
went in and sat down to the quilt
with the rest of them, and just then
Hiram Hoff, Calisty's husband, drove
up on his way to the mill. He had
his little four ear-old girl jamie, with
him, and he said he guessed he'd
leave her with Calisty, as it looked
some like rain.
5liI UaInv III anu
went to playin' round with my little
Hattie, who was bout the same age.
They run out in the yard, and before
ten minutes Hattie came running in
and screamed out: ooh, mamma,
Janie-she fell in the well =
"Well, you'd oughter heard them
four tongue-tied women! They all
gave yell simultaneous and made
rush for the door, and me after them.
''The we'll was about twenty-five
feet deep, with a low curb and wind
lass. There was drinking gourd
hanging by the side of the windlass,
and little jamie had climbed on to
tipped over wooden pail and reached
over to fill the gourd from the we'll
bucket, when she lost her balance land
down she went.
"Her curly head came up in the
water just as we come to the curb,
and Calisty gave an awful screech
and fell in dead faint on the grass.
The we'll was walled with rough stone,
and it was about twenty feet to the
water.
''In the twinklin' of an eye Melissy
Grant had off her CATERS, and not
being numbered with no hoop-skirts,
or hustle, or frills, she gathered her
plain skirts around her, climb over
the curb and down she slid on the
rope of the bucket that was in the
we'll.
'sShe went clean out of sight at
first, but the next minute her head
popped up out of the water, and she
drew herself up by the rope bout a
foot with one arm, while she clutched
little jamie with her other hand.
''The well was only bout three feet
across, and Melissy managed to get
her feet in one of the cracks tween
the rocks with her back to the oppo-
site wall; but most of her,. and jamie,
too, was in the water.
&C BLOW the dinner-horn for the
men, she says, and | run and got the
horn, and blowed as if the house was
on fire. My husband and his hired
men came running in from their work
and between us all we got jamie and
Melissy out all right, but the child