Morning journal and courier., 1894-01-13
TALES OF TEN TRAVELLERS.
GRANDMA HULL AND TaE HEiTHEn
BY EDGAR L. wAKEMAN. [Copyrisht, 1894. All rights reservsd.l
GRANDMA HULL.

GRANDMA HULL.
 like delicious dream upon the land whsn @ certain early November night came upon Maple Valley among the gray New Eng land hills, and with 1t all the storm-swept bitterness of winter.
 It brought on a bad night early; @ wild night without, but within the great farm houses of the valley 1t also brought that blessed warmth and glow which no storms save those of misfortune and sorrow can chill or change, and those dear old New Englapd suppers with their melodious kst- tie songs, their wealth of shining pewter, their spotless table cloths and their hosts of flcksripg candles; those pleasant, old on, year round glow worms within the gen tie murk and dark of ample fsrmside homes.
 At their evening meal, in the wide, low living room of Maple Hill farmhouse, sat "Grandma Hull" her two remaining fath- erless children, four-year old Mary and 1 teu-year old Dick, and her servant Jane, whose husband, old Josh Tooker, was still busy about the "chores" and in housing the shivering dumb brutes from the furi- ous storm. As the mistress of the farm house pushed her chair away from the ta- ble, the light from the fireplace revealed the sorrow-shsrpened outlines of e plain, motherly face. White-hsired from love labor and love loss, she sas still scarcely e middle-agsd woman, wh, had come to
 be called "Grandms" Hull by the valley folk opprobriously at first and finally from
 universal habit, through her stubborn
 kindliness and generosity to all suffering
 waifs cast by the tide of misfortune on
 the rocky beach of Maple Valley charity.
 "Shs'd better tend ter ie,pin' Maple
 Hill outer dsbt:" was the remark of one
 member of the Turnover club at the odor.
 ous village store.
 "Its jsss sech silly critters as keeps Ma
 pie Valley full O passsls CT vagabones;' struck up another.
 "Jim Hull'd shrink up till his grave clothes wuz loose at sech goin's on, if h,
 cud know on 'em;" vouchssfed another. Even the parson walled from the villag, . pulpit: "There are those in this yer, eighborhood-and may they bs forgiven ? who waste their substance upon godles . scofsrs, vixen millions of heather soul
 are hungsring for the mama of the vordI'
 Whereupon all the village congregation
 groaned at the obdurats iniquity of Grand
 ma Hull in the old house on Maple Hill. ' Whenever Grandma Hull was struck fl 2 her untoward heart by particularly orue 2 shaft of this nature she clsppsd her sun bonnet on her head, took her Bible in he . hand; started for the little family buryin , ground beside Maple Hill grove, where th Gipsies came and camped once or tvic 2 each year; sat there among the little head - stones beside her psrents', her children f and her dead husbands, Jim Hull's, grave f for little time; when she always returne 7 home calm and cheerful to cay to Jane sn d Josh, as she had said scores of times b, F fore, that when Jim died he had told hel 6 nearly the last thing he said. to be "kinds t saey and fair to them as hadn't had muo
 show,n and that, neishbors or no neigl
 bors, c little kindness to the hesthen righ
 under our own noses seemed to be abot
 the right sort of religion for Cynthy Hul
 widow, better known as "Grandms Hull
 as long ss she could keep the dear ol !. home together.
 ', Suddenly old Josh Tooker, tin lanteI a In hand, burst into the room like . ha 10 shattered snow w-man, and quickly latchir ,u the door, gave premonitory
 ,. sS-s-s shf" .. .. ..-- .# --.-
 Setting down his lantern, he shook hir y self into recognizable shape by the Ar of plaos and blurred out,
 st "Jane Tooker, git right outer this ss
 tin roomi Bring the children. He's COT inl seed him wrastlin' in the snow alol he the lane and jess slid in ahead on il Ill Cuss himf" And without another wo m he jerked his lantern from the floor, jerk . himself into the kitchen among the hir
 men and damned the door behind him. lsr Then Jane Tooksr rose up. She march ret Mary and Dick aathoritatively before !
 into ths kitchen, and pausing an insts sft at the door just as muffisd footstsps VI he heard on the snow-benksd porch, rsmark vet porisntiously,
 ret "Yss; its himi Grammsr Hull, its lrs silss. sunthu's goin' to happen. suntl