News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1890-10-23
How Joe Came Back.
New York Sun.

There was not a great deal in the
little town of H to distinguish it
from other small country towns. 1t
was. ten miles from a1Ay4raSIroed, and
most of its business was farming
There was Il saw-mill, a tannery, and
one or two other sraall establish
ments, but all of them together were
not sufficient to warrant calling the
place a business community. There
were comfortable farm houses and
well titled farms. There was also
one white meeting house, or struc-
ture that had been white, and store
where everything could be found that
any of the people might want, from
a knitting-needle to a load of hay.
The latter, of course, was not kept
in sight, but then neither was the
dark looking tobacco which was con-
stantlY given out, nor the cider bar
rel, which was literally patrOnized,
despite the fact that everybody = as
was anybody" had cider in their Gel
lar.
The people were shrewd, honest,
frugal; they read a weekly paper al
most up to date, and monthly re-
llgious magazine which was severely
denominational. They had an idea,
most of them, that they kept up with
the styles and ways of thinking of
the outside world, though that world
always smiled when it came in con-
tact with the village life and noted
it's ways. The men plowed, sowed,
reaped, garnered, talked politics, dis
cussed religious ''pints, lived
snug" saved, and finally died, sat
isfipd with their relations to the world
and to themselves. The women were
as diligent in their sphere, they talk
ed as busily, if not more SO, than the
men, in a more limited range of top
les; they had their ideas of social
standing, and, thoughl' meaning to
be liberal, were really as rigid in their
way as the leaders of the fashionable
world were in their folly.
Both men and Wolten went to
church regularly, from force of habit
partly, and partly from really seri-
Gus inclination. TheAs heard doc
trinal and exhortatorS kermons and
slept awhile under or 4pr the other.
When contradicted. 4 k4arted upon
religious matters, fnaciously
upheld the docN i4agined
must be righss n al
in their lives s.
-== tssfft..a=tefii Z 1t. eis-r isti 4. Was
then in v@n j, SUrch
was little rea - ~ fin
ished, well aired lmS End still
more thoroughly g a winter.
The scholars ranged e.ght years
old to- twenty. Thefs ias a very
democratic feeling allaI them, with
few exceptions. One q these excep-
tions was the cause of o4i' story.
Way out on the outskirts of the
town, half q mile or mtre from any
other neighbor, had livea for many
years a supplemented DID fellow,
known as Bill, the hermit" No one
knew who he was or whelG1e he came.
All that was known WAS that he sud
denly appeared in the village, bought
the old house in which he lived, and
thereafter took no part or interest in
the towns affairs. He had with him
a little boy whom gossip said was
his grandson, but this was neither
verified nor disproved. He called
the boy Joe, and few ever heard him
called by any more of a name,
The pair evidently had enough tO
eat, and managed somehow to OBJ
tain clothes enough to cover them
The boy was as reserved as the Older
man. He never played with Other
children. He seldom came into the
village. When he was ten years ole
the man died without revealing til,
mystery of their lives or the charac
ter of their relationship,
From that ting on the boy grew
morbid, and it at last became evi
dent that he was growing up ig
norant, misanthrOpic, and at time
was actually suffering. By patien
effort he was finally induced to at
tend school, where he became inter
ested and made fair progress, Bu
: he could not or would not mingl
freely with the other pupils Som
of them simply ignored him, but hi
manner aroused antagonism in otf