Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1894-06-18

of her reasoning, | took refuge in a
cigar, while Elizabeth slipped her cot
fee and went on with her prattle.
tAlfred, dear, do you know Mrs.
Bellfry Buncombe? She's the regent.
She is more swell than any one in
town. Mrs. Higginson says that for
years she has kept herself shut up
from common people. She has never
spoken to or come in contact with a
trades person in her life, except once,
when she had to order herring, but
she kept him at distance through
the telephone"
''Who, the herring?'
CHOW stupid you are! No, the
trades person"
These transcendent qualifications of
Mrs. Buncombe for her high Office SO
impressed me that straightway made
for my study, followed by Elizabeth,
and we lost no time in looking up the
family Bible.
After a still hunt of ar hour or more
this venerable tome was unearthed,
lying in company with one or two
Rollo books and volume of "Pride and
Prejudice" in cobwebbed corner of
the closet, where I kept my odds and
ends, boots principally. After we had
removed the dust from the book
which no we'll regulated family should
be without, Elizabeth opened at and
turned to the family register, when,
as if by inspiration, her we'll manicur-
ed forefinger lit upon the name Pene-
lope Shaw.
a tone of mockery, far from it, for in
that name I beheld the very root and
source of my Elizabeth's tree, the
name of my wife'S great great-great
grandmother.
That was enough. We went from
Shaw to Shaw until the clock struck
midnight. The next day I went to
the rooms of the Historical Society,
the College library and the free libra
ry on the scent of dead Shaws. be-
came, as it were, an ancestral hound.
This, Of course, meant neglect Of
several minor issues Of a business ma
ture in which several thousands of |
dollars were involved. [ opened up a
corresponce which incapiacitated our
postman for active service for week. |
Gentlemen rose up all over the cOun-
try who offered to supply me with
ancestors at SO much head. One
generous soul offered to get me up a
tree for the modest sum of 500. I
spurned his tempting offer. 1t was [
who had undertaken to get Elizabeth
up that tree, and it was I alone who
would do it.
Well, in months time I had bar
gained all the game I thought neces-
sary in the way of great, greater,
greatest grand parents, uncles, aunts,
cousins, etc., and really most re-
spectacle showing they made, the an
cestors of my wife Elizabeth, God
fearing, fennel eating, church going,
undressing, law abiding, represen-
tative New Englanders, all of them.
If butchers and bakers, spinners and
tanners preponderated in the list,
what of that? Was not that the key
note of the Mayfower emigration, to
bake and butcher, spin and tan, in
colony of their own, unobstructed by
the snobbery of England.
P. Shaw had son, a butcher. To
him gave an honorable perch on the
topmost bough Of my Elizabeth's tree.
His son, a baker, took lower twig,
and in due course of events his daugh-
ter was delivered of seven sons, all Of
whom walked in straight ine-one
was tailor and went into the clothes
line-of virtue; all save one, who
took to politics as naturally as he did I
to his neighbours wives. It is chroni-
cled of him, ''that he did swear great
oaths, drink strong rotations of
punch, play at the tavern for high
stakes and did SO thoroughly and {
nightly debauch himself into the
likings Of the people that with one
acclaim they made him governor of
the state Of Connecticut
In short, this FOSTERING rake
dourished as only the wicked can. I /
turned from his monstrOsities with
shudder This one blot on the es
outcheon of my loved one should
be forever hidden. Never should she
know that in her Presbyterian veins
coursed blood so riotous. suppressed
the great great grandfather with
zeal-shut him up be-
tween the leaves of the book that told
he story of his shame.
Well, by this time March had blown
tself in upon us, and Elizabeth and [
lad spent many a cheerful evening in