Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1894-10-25
"SREPTY."
BY JENNIE COTTON.

The June sunshine poured gener
ously in at the wide doors Of the
Merritt great barn." and the large
cleanlyroom partitioned of for car,
riage-house was full Of the breath OF
summer.
Opposite the door stood the family
Surrey" wearing the drapery pro.
vided for its hours of retirement, and
in one corner was a lofty pile OF
sleighs, OF various patterns and
sizes. On the same side as the door
stood the gaunt frame Of an old.
fashioned hand-loom, and high in
state before it was seated the mistress
Of the farmhouse. Many happy
solitary hours Mrs. Merritt spent
there.
She tloved to weave" she said, in
her gentle, meditative voice.
But this love was not merely for
the weaving. 1t was more for the
pleasant sights and sounds of the
summer weather, and for the kindly
leisure of life's afternoon. The peace
full task belonged to summer as much
as did the swaying Of the daisies and
the hum of the bees. In winter the
loom stood neglected and forgotten,
but in the late days of May, when
the grass was already deep and green
by the foothpath, and the apple-trees
had shed their last lingering BIOS
SONS, the longing for the dreamy,
delightful task would awaken, and
Mrs. Merritt would bestir herself to
set upa web.
The old loom had come to her by
Inheritance, and she valued it as she
treasured the ancestral homespun
linen, and the family traditions which
extended back even to the inevitable
"three brothers that came over from
England"
She had often told her daughters
of the remote grandmother who, when
the men of the family had inadvert-
emily carried off the pick of the house,
hold armament on an excursion to Ii
conderoga and Crown Point, defended
her home and babies with an axe.
To such deeds the Merritt sisters felt
themselves quite adequate, had need
arisen, but they could see no reason
why their mother should sit in the
barn and weave -carpeting in the
fact that the loom had been framed
Of oak timber cut when all the hill
side beyond Roaring Brook was q
wilderness. But if mother" pleased.
it was all right.
And Miss Sarepta Toker even was
welcome to bring her knitting-work
and sit in the doorway, and tell who
was dead, and who was married, from
Roaring Brook to the Nepash. For
Sarepta possessed married sisters and
cousins in half the towns of the
county, which gave her an immense
advantage as purveyor Of news.
She was q meagre little woman, who
had never been credited with much
alertness of mind or body. 1t added
little brightness to her existence
even to look on from the outside at
the life and stir, the coming and 60
ing at "the Merritt place"
And in the interval when "S'repty"
sat and knitted, with her eyes shut
to visible things, she was no more
hindrance to the placid musings of
Mrs. Merritt than would have been a
cat, doing in the sunshine.
Back and forth moved the shuttle,
then followed the dull stroke of the
batten. Occasionally the weaver
would descend from her seat to turn
the ratchet of the beam upon which
the fabric was wound.
''How nice you do beat up your
weavin' |" exclaimed S'repty, rousing
herself to admiration. "Mis' Minks
don't half do her'n, and Rosalia has
said, time and ag'in, she would t
send any more rags to her; but then
she's kind er sorry for her."
Its hard for her to struggle
along" said Mrs. Merritt. IF her
children had lived, it would have
been different"
"Your loom got kind O. crowded
out of the house, didn't it?" said
S'repty. 1.-THE old furnitoor has got
to 90. Reminds me of what Cousin
Spencer Doolittle said when Square
Lane fugled round an got him turned
out of the gallery to the Baptis'
meetin'-house. He'd played the bass
viol to lead the singin' for forty
years. There amt no room left for
the stable foundations of order, SEE
he. Folks mus keep underminin'
an counterminin', an improvin',
SEE he.
1T was mynotion having the loom
set up out here, said Mrs. Merritt,
"He says it's my amusement for sum-
mer weather, that / have to have,
just as the girls play croquet and
tennis.
Another long, dreamy silence, ex-
cept for the shuttle that went on
and on.
There was sound of wheels, and
all semblance of slumber fed from
Sarepta's eyes as there appeared at
the front gate very shiny top
buggy. And when in q few moments
slender shadow fell across the door
way, and Lois Merritt entered, no
detail of her appearance was unob-
served. The girl was tall, like her
mother, with the same large, serious
cast of countenance.
"What awful little bunnits they
be a-wearin'!" said Sarepta, as il
obeying an irresistible inner prompt
ing. Lois received placidly this inn
piled criticism OF her new summer