Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1895-01-25
Once Aboard the Lugger.
By o."
copyright, 1896, by the Author

Early laSU lull Un6TO ulGu Ill Troy an
old man and his wife, The woman went
first, and the husband took chill at
her graves edge when he stood bare
headed in a lashing shower The loose
earth crumbled under his feet, triCkling
over, and dropped on her coffin lid.
Through two long nights he lay on his
bed without sleeping and listened to
this sound. At first it ran in his ears
perpetually, but afterward he heard it
at intervals only, in the pauses of acute
suffering. On the seventh day he died of
pleuropneumonia, and On the tenth Ga
Sunday they buried him. For just so
years the dead man had been minister of
the Independent chapel on the hill and
had laid down his pastorate two years
before, on his golden wedding day. Con-
sequently there was a funeral sermon,
and the young man, his successor, chose
II Samuel j, 90, for his text, Lovely
and pleasant in their lives, and in their
death they were not divided. " Himself
a newly married man, he waxed dithy-
rambic Oh the sustained affection and
accord of the departed couple. Truly"
he wound up, "such marriages as theirs
were made in heaven. And could they
have heard the two bodies i'll the ceme-
terry had not denied it, but the woman,
after the fashion of women, would have
qualified the young minister's assertion
in her secret heart.
When, at the close of the year 1889,
Rev. Samuel BaX visited Troy for the
first time to preach his trial sermon at
Salem chapel, he arrived by Bontigo's
van, late on Saturday night, and de-
parted again for Plymouth at o'clock
on Monday morning. He had just turn
ed 81 and looked younger, and the zeal
of his calling was strong upon him.
Moreover, he was shaken with nervous
anxiety for the success of his sermon.
So that it is no marvel if he carried
away but blurred and misty impressions
of the little port and the congregation
that sat beneath him that morning, os-
tensibly reverent but actually on the
lookout for heresy or any sign of weak
ness. Their impressions, at any rate,
were sharp enough. They counted his
thumps upon the desk, noted his one
reference to 1.-THE original Greek" saw
and remembered the flush of his young
face and the glow in his eye as he ham
mered the doctrine of the redemption
out of original sin. The deacons fixed
the subject of these trial sermons and
had chosen original sin on the ground
that good beginning was half the bat
tie. The maids in the congregation knew
beforehand that he was unmarried and
came out of the chapel knowing also
that his eyes were brown; that his hair
had reddish tinge in certain lights; that
one of his cuffs was frayed slightly, but
his black coat had scarcely been worn a
dozen times, with other trifes. They
loitered by the chapel door until he came
out in company with Deacon Snowden,
who was conveying him off to dinner.
The deacon on weekdays was harhor
master Of the port and on Sundays af-
forded himself roasted duck for dinner.
Lizzie Snowden walked at her fathers
right hand. She was slight, bloodless
blond, tall, with pretty complexion,
and hair upon which it was rumored she
could sit if she were so minded. The
girls watched the young preacher and
his entertainers as they moved down the
hill, the deacon talking and his daugh-
ter turning her head aside as if it were
merely in the section of the world stu
ated on her right hand that she took the
least interest.
"That's to show zen the big plat"
commented one of the group behind.
"He can't turn his head hes way, but it
stares ZEN in the face. "
can her features look best from the
left side, as everybody knows"
II reckon, if he's chosen minister,
that Lizzie'll have EN-" said a tall,
lanky girl. She was apprenticed to a
dressmaker and engaged to young tin
smith. Having laid aside ambition on
her account, she flung in this remark as
an apple of discord.
'Tenifer HCsken has a chance. He's
fair skinned hissel', and Lizzie's too
near his own color. Blacks mate is
white, as they say"
There's Sue Tregraine. She'll have
more money than either when her father
dies"