News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1891-01-15
| i'ned right in with 'em and tallod

lnluulln eleQuenU about EN-, and
praised 'em up-though | didn't get
quite so nerved up about 'em as the
rest did, but done well by 'em-and
if the old fOrefathers wuz present and
could speak, they would say so, or
else they would lie
But way along toward the end of
the meal, | suggested that it wuz
s'pOsed that we had some foremoth-
ers too. But the idea wuz received
cOldly-sO cold and freezin', that |
didn't feel free to continue the con-
versatiOn.
Parthenie's husband and my pard-
ner jest tOsted their heads at the
idee, and looked witherin' at me, and
Parthenie looked mad. And thinkin'
It wuz to her table, l Jest hushed
right up.
But | KEEP up my own thoughts in
side of me-in that inner citidpl of
the soul that no outsiders can enter
unless you viii 'em to; Jest tdriv into
{ uiiert E,-Ci 4 toIIu sacred enclosure some
old foremothers, and guarded 'em
secret with my constant and reverent
memories
| kinder fancy that Parthenie mis-
trusted what | wuz a-thinkin' about,
though | didn't say no more.
But, good Lord she is smart as a
whip, and she could imagine suthin'
of what | felt from my looks. And |
s'pOsn she got to thinkin' that | wuz
a visitor, and must be treated ais
such, and she is a perfect lady.
Anyway, most imegiately after
| breakfast, she told me she had some
relicts of Eben's grandmother up in
! the attick, and asked me if | didn't
want to see 'em.
OfcOurse, accepted her invitation
almost eagerly; so she give me the
run of the old attick, and spent the
biggest heft of the forenoon up there.
She up with me once in a while, as
she could be spared from her work.
The house had belonged to Eben' 'ses
greatgrandmOther, and it had lots of
relicts of her. / had heard sights
about that old female, and wuz glad
enough to see her remains.
Parthenie showed me off the things.
and the relicts of the other old female
ancestors of theirs.
But she showed 'em off with a. air
as if she was a-doin' it to please me,
and not as If she sOt any great store
by their deeds. But good landl
had heard lots about 'em by she that
wuz and is Miss Jane Keller. She
come to Miss Sawdry's on q visit,
and stayed weeks; it wuz through
her that got acquainted with Par
THEME in the first place.
Wall, Eben's greatgrandmother
wuz wonderful woman, from all |
learned. She had fit Injuns hand to
hand when they wuz a-tryin' to carry
off or kill her bed-rid grandfather and
her sick husband. And stood right
over the bed-she had got 'em onto
one bed, jest before the Iniins broke
in, SOS to defend 'em better.
She had fortified herself with the
meat-aX and the rOllin'-pin, and she
KEEP them savages at bay till help
come, a-slashin' right into 'em and
a-parryin' their blows, as the case
might be. She wuz a big stout wom-
an, and the savages al little intoxi-
Gated from drinkin' n barrel of hard
cider that stood outside the door
a-makin' itself into vinegar.
But, anyway, she fit 'em off till
help came, and then she let out her
oven full of children (she had hid 'em
in the big oven) and got supper for
the hull crew of neighbors, who had
fiocked in to help.
An awful smart creeter she wuz.
and it is on record that the minister
spoke well of the deed-not in public,
oh, no; that would have been dan |
gerous and liable to make her feel |
equal to her grandfather, but he |
spoke well of the deed in private-so |
they say.
There was a picture of her, up in |
The old grandfather layin' in total |
helplessness and a yeller wooden |
nightcap, and the husband all hud- |
died up immortal terror and enflama- |
tory rheumatic, and the noble female |
a-standin' up in front of 'em a-hold- |
en- her rollin'-pin in one hand, some |
like a breast-plate (Only different |
shapedD, and a-strikin' out boldly |
with the other hand at the infurated |
and slightly intoxicated savages. 1t |
is a noble seen, and very impressive. |
though the paint is wore off in spots. |
Wall, there is other relicts of her in |
the attick. A gun that she killed two |
wildcats with and bear. This wuz
durin' her husbands absence, and the |
wildcats and so forth wuz a menac- |
in the dOmestick fowls and animals, |
on which theirlives depended through |
the cold winters. Wall, they KEEP the |
gun, though it was rusty now, and a
muskeeter could have held out |
against it and come off victorious.
Then, in another part of the attick
wuz the remains and relicts of Par
themes greatgrandmother, on her
own side-looms and quill-wheels and |
things.
She wuz master-hand for spinnin'
and weavin'. Why. it is on record |
(she that wuz and is Jane told mel
that once, during the war of 1912,
her husband and two oldest sons be-
in in the army, and irclothes wuz
in tatters, they rode home en- a fur
Tough, their clothes all off on 'em, and
a cold winrer a-comin' on.
They couldn't stay to home only
two days, and they wuz so wore out
that she put 'em all to bed
And what did this brave, likely
creeter do? She didn't take up their
ragged garments and weep onto 'em,
and then set down and smell camfre,
and go into highstericks a-thinkin
how they must suffer all winter, most /
bare back as they wuz.
No, she swallowed back her tears, if |
she had any, which | s'pOse she had.
and went out and tackled some sheep
two black ones and white.
She jist cut the wool often them
creeters, spun it, wove it, made it up |
into good warm clothes for 'em, and |
all inside of two days.
1t is handed down straight in the |
family-not the clothes, but the tale |
the tale has come down straight, |
and it is SO.
The clothing she made KEEP 'em
warm all through the cold winter,
but when spring come, their limbs
that had stood the ice and snow of
deep forests and angry rivers in mid
winter-them feet had to wade
through ~ icyer path, a colder tide,
one that no clothin' has been made
warm enough to keep the cold chills
Out'n.
They wuz buried by their mates af-
ter a bloody battle. They fell vic
tOrious, and a-thinkin', as they died,
of the wife and mother far away.
So wes'pCsa, for they loved her and
she them. But, well as she loved 'em
and ae tiuht n ,yrin 80 this Crrinf IoiJ