Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1893-08-25
THOSE shIrIess skerritt's.

When a good housekeeper of Brays
Corner wanted to say the mostsevere thing
possible about a less neat and thrifty
neighbor she was sure to pronounce her
"'most as shif'less as the Skerritts."
The Skerritts lived on rocky bit of
pasture land, about two miles north of the
village. Their house was rough board
shanty of one room, with hardly any fur
niture, or even utensils to cook with.
There was a story eXtant, that in do
nestle crisis at Skerritt's, when the moth
er was lying very i'll, a kind-hearted
woman from the village went up to see
what she could do for the family. Wish
ing to make some Cruel, and being unable
to find anything to cook it in that did not
leak, she consulted the invalid, who said
she "guessed p'raps pa had took the skillet
TO feed the dog in" which proved to be
the case. Later, wishing to wash few
small articles, and finding not so much as
a tin hand-basn, she was constrained to
apply again to the sick woman, who said,
with some surprise, "Why, didn't we find
the skillet"
The doctors wife rode over to the Skier
ritts with him, one day, and idly watching
him move about the room, noticed, with
some surprise, that he kept his hat on.
When he came out she said, reprovingly,
'Why, Edward, | shouldn't think you
would wear your hat in the house. You
ought to be Just as courteous to a poor
person as to a rich one"
my dear said the doctor, gravely, but
with roguish CLEAN in his dark eyes, 81
shouldn't dare to put my hat down any
where at Skerritt's if l proposed to veal
it again"
1t was mystery to every one how these
people lived, Old Skerritt and his two
sons occasionally did days work for some
farmer, but oftener went cunning or fishing
Report said that they occasionally visited
hen roost or potato patch to which they
had no legal claim, but this statement
lacked positive proof. They were poor
even for a poor neighborhood-a mere
nest of three or four houses grade better
than their own; but they always looked
well-fed and healthy.
Some effort was made by the kindly vii
lage people to civilize, not to say Christian
ize them, but with Indifferent success
They seemed to prefer to remain in a stat,
of depravity.
On one of the pastors periodical visits
sold man Skerritt' informed him tina
Jim wanted ter git married, and coulC
he (the PASTOR hitch 'em if they'd com,
down ter the village?"
"But," said the perplexed clergymen
show can your son support a wife ? IL,
does no work, and has no home o.
money"
'Parson," said the old man, (slowl,
shifting an enormous quid of tobacco to ;
part of his mouth where it would be LEST
of an impeachment to his specify, ''Parson
when l got married twenty years back, j
hadn't home or a cent in my pocket, ant
| with a gesture that included the barrier
quarter-acre of land, the rough boarC
shanty, untidy wife, ragged children anC
NANCY dog see iohere / am nOlc!"
1t was ludicrous, and it was pathetic
but it was also that "touch of nature tina
makes the whole world kim" The parsoI
succumbed without another word, anC
when the time came, he married "Jim' t.
the girl of his choice, and bestowed upol
| him some excellent advice, with littl,
present from his own scantily-lined poke
book TO give him a start upon what looked
at the brightest, to be a very dubious mat
rimonial experiment.
| -WOrthin1tOn'S MdOdzine