The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-12-22
CHAPTER. l.
THE eooD-NAruRrD HuBBARDs.


ever seen the Hnbbards sad or out of tem-
Der. Gas good-natured as the Hubbards''
was common comparison in Berlin, and
s'as easy going as the Hubbards," or ''as
feather-brained as the Hubbards" were
variations of the same idea, used by the
more critical-minded, who were brought up
TO believe that much levity was ungodlY,
and that life was q serious thing.
But TO every separate member Of the
Hubbard family life seemed TO be regarded
as an immense joke. They were seven in
all; Father and mother-designated as
'Pop and Mop" by the boys, and five chill
dren-Matthew, Mark, Luke and john and
Rebecca, respectively.
They exhausted their religion in a
namin' their family" Widow Stevens,
reict of Deacon Stevens, had once said of
them, and the phrase became sort of town
property afterward in describing the Hub
bard family.
Not that they were an immoral or vicious
people. but that they were all from the
parents down TO pretty Rsbecca-as incon-
sequential and thoughtless as children off on
a holiday.
Widow Stevens. who has INDUCED in this
for her unusual bit of malicious pleasantly,
was most respected person in Berlin. A
devout church woman, skilled nurse, deft
hand to array the dead for burial, vigorous
worker in all churches, she was counted
authority in the place. She lived alone in a
square, unpretentious house, which had
been built by her husbands great grand
parents and had known no revisions since,
save a yearly coat of paint and the addition
of q small projecting roof over the front
door-steps, where Widow stevens sometimes
sat on summer evenings.
Many of her less wealthy neighbors had
built piazzas around their old family home
steads, but Widow Stevens held piazza to
be merely ornamental and ungodly. She
drew the line between worldliness and use
funess at the ''stoop."
1t was a few doors below her house on
the same street lived the Hubbards. They
had moved into Berlin ten years before our
story opens, "havin lived in nigh about
every state, but lastly in Indianny," the
cold man Hubbard as he was known ia
miliarly, was won't to say.
True to the adage of the rolling stone,
they had gathered no moss, and they had
subslsted on the charities of the neighbors
for several months after their advent in
Berlin But they hedaaughed over it all
and through it all, and had seemed to be
happv and care free as saowbirds when
crumbs are thrown to them, and none had
been more generous in givlBg-both of food
and raimeat and advice-than Widow
Stevens.
Now, after ten years. the Hubbards were
in comparative comfort.
The father worked at the blacksmith
trade aud the two older sons titled small
farm belonging to Widow Stevens. John
worked at odd jobs, and Luke, the most
Supplemented of the family, assisted his
father in the shop. "Becca" and her mother
kept the house in an easy and not thor
oughly sk1lful manner, it was said by the
good housewives of Berlin.
''Shift!ess creeturs,r Widow Stevens said
time and again in the sewing society when
the Hubbards were discussed. "But it's nc
use advisin' them"
1T goes in one ear and out another, ]
suppose, a neighbor suggested.
ut don't even go thro' from ear to ear, y
replied the widow. 1T goes in one ear and
out at their mouths in a laugh"
For the Hubbards were perpetually
laughing at everything and nothing. No
body ever passed the house who did not
hear a ripple or guffaw, or q chorus OF
laughter fThe Anvil Chorus a willy sum-
ner visitor once called it, as q medley oil
laughter rang out from the blacksmith
shop where the four Hubbard boys were
assembled one evening.
They were all practical jokers, too, and
nature with the jokes they perpetrateC
upon one another. Their jokes sometimes
bordered upon tragedies, but the Hub
bards recounted them to the neighbour
with tears of laughter streaming from theil
eyes.
The first winter after the arrival of th'
Hubbards in Berlin Roger Buckley hac
with his mother passed the holidays with hi
great aunt, the Widow Stevens.
4
born and bred and now a senior in Val
College, he came as near stirring his aunt
heart with the worldly sentiment of prid
as anything could.
Rogers father had accumulated a com
pentence in foreign importing business, ant
had died few years previous, leaving
Roger his sole heir. At 81 he would com
into possession of comfortable fortune
With all her severe ideas of life and he
belief in plain living, the Widow Steven
felt human sense of exaltation in the pos
session of these rich relatives, and there wa
an added stateliness to her department a
she walked into the little village church be
side them.
Roger had not visited her since he was
small boy, and now he found the holida
week passing quickly enough, despite th
dullness Of the village. There was pom
just on the outskirts Of the town where ez
cellent skating was to be had, and her
Roger repaired every day to enjoy himself
Toward nightfall of the second day he burs
into the room where his mother and aur
were sitting, and throwing down hi
skates with gay burst of laughter,
cried:
"Auntie who on earth ara the Hubbard;
have been skating with some boy of this
name, and they are the queerest fellow
Who are theyT
Widow Stevens brow contracted.
They are little moro than nobody, sh
answered. "Shiftless folks from lndianl
or some other outlandish place. Poor
churcn mice, yet they don't know enough
worry over it. Always laughing, Sunday
as well as weekdays. From parents
children they don't seem to know, not one
them, that life is a solemn thing"
y Well, should say they did not, laughe
Aoger. why, what do you think haI
Pened to-day? There were just the for
hubbard boys on the pond beside me, an
We all started racing, but | left them
pon they gave it up. | skated off to II
surthest end Of the pond, and pretty soon
S T loud laughing, and called on
what's the joke, boys For answer the
puiy shouted tho louder, and | saw one
u .,.I double up and slap his knee roarIT
Sl'h tun. So skated up near, and wit
w you think had happened2 Why, Joi
ssau gone through hole in the ice, and vi
Il uouAuerlng around in the water trying