Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1894-12-28
" GRANDMA FIELD"
OF FAYETTEVILLE,
Eugene FIELDS Story of his BOyhOOd
Days in Newfane,

Told in the Ladies' Home journal Sc
ries Of Papers on THE Woman who
Most Influenced Me-"
After our mothers death we two little
boys were sent East, 1t was at that time
that our father wrote to Grandma Field
that he did not care to have his sons i'm
bued with the "superstitions of New Eng
land" To this our grandma made answer
in these words "ROswel, ] do not know
what you mean by 'superstitons, but of
one thing you can rest assured my grand
children shall be brought up in the nurture
and admontion of the Lord Dear grand
ma has been asleep these many, many
/ years ! was still boy when ! saw her
sanity, beloved face for the last time. But
l have not forgotten her. We were famous
/ friends, and so very many times in these
/ years thatIhave elapsed since | was a boy
amid the New England hills, l have, with
/ closed eyes and in moments of solemn,
/ sweet revery, seen dear grandma's lovely
face and heard her gentle voice and felt
the caress of her loving touch. All that !
remember of grandma is so pleasant that |
/ love TO speak of her and of the days when
| was one of her two little boys.
The old homestead was to the south of
I Lllt CulHlious IL Was Il long, bWO-SlOTN WHITE
/ frame house with narrow windows and
/ green front door, upon which there was
curious little brass knocker, and a brass
door-plate bearing the name, Gen Martin
Field Above this front door was an
archaic window or transom in the shape
| of fan. Three acres of ground were
around the house-a large front yard and
side yard and an orchard; there were
numerous outbuildings, a museum flor my
! grandfather was an amateur naturalist),
wood-shed, barn, an ice-house and car
| rlage-house. In the carriage house was
monster chaise, and ] used to wonder
whether there ever was a horse big enough
and strong enough to haul it. There was
long gravel walk leading from the front
gate to the front door, and on each side
OF this walk there was a fiOwer-b bed, in
which, at the proper season, prim daffodils
! bloomed. On the picket fence which di.
vided the front and side yards there was
a sun-dial, and just to the north of this
Liial stood a sassafras tree-you see l re-
all these details, although twenty five
4 'aars have elapsed since l last visited the
nj homestead in Vermont How true
I'D how good it is that the scenes of child
I'D never fade from our memories
Where were hills all around the little vii
M anu lutIt were trout DIoDkS IIlhl
, C. furtvely through woods and thickets
all my, but how steep those hills were,
an \ ow sweet the wild Strawberries, and
' hopbol and pungent the checkerberries
Weik Nat nestled away up there in that
gravel sterile soil. On the east side of
the ntain flowed the West river.
! black-t turbulent stream, in i'll repute
with rcolicitous mothers, for Reuben
: FISHER " Lutte was drowned therein in
the su9 OF 1928, and Lute's grave in
the ouI1 ground on the hill near the
Stedman NJ was studiously and solemnly
pointed every little boy who evinced
disposI'-9t TO hook of ana 90 swimming
by comm,H onsent the only proper place
LOT lttle " TO go swimming was in the
Drook Just :, side of Burdette's melodeon
factory on q Dummerston road. The
, Vlllage was CT I'd Fayetteville then; now ii
is Newfane
Grandma v pillar in the Congrega-
tlohal church, At the decline and disin-
tegratlon OF ~ Universalist society, she
! reJolced as corr ty as if a temple of Baal
or an lido OF : Itaroth had been over
turned 1es, z ddma was puritanical-
nol 10 the eXtts OF persecution, but a
Iurllah III the seS~ity of her faith and in
the eNactlng nicetS5f her Interpretation of
her duties To CODY I'd mankind. Grand
ma sunday Dega1 six o clock Saturday
evening by That nos her house was swept
anu SaTnlshed, andN2er lamps trimmed
and every preparati4 made for a quiet
reverential Observance If the Seventh Day
There was no coOkiI, there on Sunday
AT noon Mrs. Deacon Rannev and other
old ladies used to coma from church with
grandma TO eat lunchPl and discuss the
sermon and suggest dos of pietv for the
ensuing week. l renee GER Mrs. Deacon
Ranney and her frigid, tompauions very
distinctly; they never lnied and they
wore austere bonn 0azinesl hat rustled and
squeaked dolorously. MrslDeacon Rannev
seldom noticed me furthe0lthan TO regard
me with a look that seem[r 10 sticmatize
me AS an incipient vessel OF, rrath that was
to be disapproved of, andt never liked
Mrs. Deacon Ranney after Lleard her re-
mindng Grandma one dav fiat solomon
had truly said, spare the I'D and spoil
the child. | still think i'll ofIirs. Deacon
Ranney for having sought to (orrupt dear
old grandma gentle nature WIKI any such
incendiary suggestions.
recall those Sunday luncheons, for
was always hungry then, and they were so
very good. They consisted of hard boiled
eggs, bread and butter, cookies, crackers,
NNNS iHuts' Cueese' gingerbread, and GER
tain kind of cake called loaf-cake. which
IN the West l have met with under he cor
rupted and plebeian name of dough-cake
These viands were always cold. Fer her
sell and her austere visitors, grandma
would heat water in the fireplace and make
tea, but even this was always done with a
certain fear and trembling for, as have as
good as told you, grandma believed that
naught should be done upon the Seventh
Day save in the service of God. Grandma
really had passion for church-going; l
could not understand it at all. There was
no heat in the Westinghouse in winter time
III those days-in fact, grandma always de-
nounced stoves and furnaces as abomina-
lions of Satan's invention. l fancy she
actually enjoyed the divers discomforts en-