Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1892-07-29

!
Mary Ann, Harriet, and Mirandy. She
had five daughters besides these, but two
were married and gone away from home,
and the other three were old enough to
make their own sun-bOnnets.
There were four Thayer boys; one of
them came next to Mirandy, the youngest
girl the others ranked upwards in age
from Harriet, who was eleven, to Sarah
Jane, who was sixteen. There were thir-
teen sons and daughters in all in Josiah
Thayer's family, and eleven were at home.
1t was hard work to get enough from the
stony New England farm to feed them;
and let Mrs. Thayer card, and spin, and
dye, and weave as she would, the clothing
often ran short. And so it happened that
little Mirandy Thayer, aged six, had no
shoes to her feet.
One Sunday in June she cried because
she had to 90 to meeting barefooted.
"Ain't you ashamed Of yourself, a great
big girl like you, crying?' said her mother,
sternly. "You 90 right over there and
sit down on the settle till father gets hitch
ed up, and Daniel. you 90 and sit down
side of her, and teach her the first qucs-
ton i'm the catcchsm. She ii ought to find
out there's something else to be thought
about on the Sabbath day besides shoes"
So Mirandy. shifting between the solemn
words, repeated them after Daniel, who
was twelve years old. and knew his cate
chism quite thoroughly. And when the
great farm wagon, with the team OF oxen,
stood before the door. She climbed IN with
the rest without a murmur.
But sitting in the Westinghouse through
the two hours discourse, she drew up her
little bare feet under her blue pctticoat,
and going down the aisle afterwards, She
crouched, making it sweep the floor, until
her mother dragged her up torcibly by one
arm.
"Ain't you ashamed of yoursef?' she
whispered. "A great big girl like YOU
Mirandy was in reality very small for
her age, and everybody called her "little;'
but she got very few privileges on account
of her youth and lttleness. In those
days, and especially in family like Jo-
siah Thayer's, where there were SO many
children that each had to scratch for itself
at an early age or &C without, six years
was considered comparatively mature, and
the child who had lived that long was not
exempt from many duties.
SO Mrs. Thayer did not think herself in
the least severe when she said to Mirandy
after meeting, "If you want some shoes so
J.
Mirandy looked up inquiringly at her
mother.
"You can pick berries an sell 'em, ;" re-
piled her mother. ''You're plenty big
enough to-"
Mirandy said nothing, and soon her
mother set her to rocking Jonathan in his
wooden CRADLE but as she sat with her
small bare feet on the rocker, ambition eX-
banded wider and wider in her childish
soul, and she resolved that she would earn
some shoes.
The berries were not ripe cfore the
middle of July. She had some five weeks
to wait before she could fairly begin work
But not day passed that She did not visit
the pastures to see If the berries were ripe
She brought home so many partially ripe
ones for samples that her brothers and Sis
ters demonstrated. They, too, were vital
ly interested in the berry crop in behalf of
shoes and many other things, "She wont
leave any berries on the bushes to get ripe
if she picks so many green ones they
complained, and her mother issued stern
decree that Mrandy should not 90 to the
berry pasture until the berries were fairly
ripe.
But at last, one hot morning in July,
the squad of berry-pickers started. There
were four Thayer girls and two Thayer
boys besides Jonathan, the baby, whom
Eliza dragged in his little wooden wagon.
"lf you go berrying this mornin', you've
got to take Jonathan with YOU" Mrs
Thayer had said. "Dorcas is weaving, an
Lyddy an have got to dye. You'll have
to take him out in the pasture with you,
an tend him."
The berry pasture whittier they were
bound was about a half-mile from home
The two boys scurried on ahead, the four
yellow sun-bonnets marched bravely on,
and Jonathan's wagon ratified behind.
"The berries are real thick" said Harri-
ct; "but they say She bushes are loaded
with 'em over in Capn Moseby's lot, an
they're as big as walnuts."
"He can't use quarter of 'em himself"
returned Mary Ann. II call it real stingy
not to let folks 60 in there pickm :" She
nodded her sun-bonnet Indignantly.
When they reached the berry pasture,
they fell to work eagerly. Jonathan's
wagon was drawn up on one side, under
the shade of pine tree, and Mirandy was
hidden to have an eye to him. Nobody
had much faith in the seriousness of Mi
randy's picking, and they thought that she
might as well tend Jonathan and leave
them free
But Mirandy stationed herself at a bush
near Jonathan, and began with will.
They all had birch baskets fastened at
their waists to pick into, and they had
brought buckets to fill, Mirandy had hers
as well as the rest.
The yellow sun-bonnets and the palm
leaf hats waved about among the bushes,
and the berries fell fast into the birch
bark baskets. Mirandy staid close to JON
athan, as she had been hidden, and she
struggled bravely with her berry bush, but
it was too tall for her; the bushes in this
pasture were very tall. Mirandy tugged
the branches down, and painted for breath
She was eager to fill her basket as soon as
anybody. She heard Harriet and Mary
Ann talking near her. although she could
not see them.
"Cap'n Moseby's pasture is right Ovei
there. You get over the stone wall, ant
go across one field, and you come to it, .
remarked Harriet.
81 s'pose the berries are thick as spat
ters," said Mary Ann, with a sigh.
"Dan'l says the bushes are dragging
down with EN-.
"Well," says Mary Ann, 'nobody woulC
dare to 90 there, for he keeps that grea
black dog, and I've heard he watches will
gun"
''Sove |. No; | shouldn't dare to go
/ s'pose it would be stealing, anyway"
II don't s'pose 'twould," rejoined Har
riet, hotly. 81 guess if anything is free
berry pastures are. Who planted berry
bushes, I'd like to know?"
gfnnga Ia. | nd iI - sold Mary 4