Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1895-11-22
MISCELLANY.
JONATHAN,

He was so ugly,-outside, mean: long |
and lank flat-chested, shrunken, round |
shouldered, STOPPING when he walked; body |
like plank, arms and legs like split rails, |
feet immense, hands like paddles, head set |
on neck scrawny as picked chickens,
hair badly put on and in patches, some |
about his head, some around his jaws, some |
under his chin in half-moon, a good deal
on the back of his hands and on his chest.
Nature had hewn him in the rough and
had left him with every ak mark showing.
He wore big shoes tied with deer-hide
strings and nondescript breeches that
wrinkled along his knotted legs like old gun
covers. These were patched and repatched
with various hues and textures-parts of
another pair-bits of coat and fragments
of tailor's cuttings. Sewed in their seat
was half of a cobbler's apron-for greater
safety in sliding over lodges and logs, he
would tell you. Next came leather belt
polished with use, and then wooden shirt
any kind of a shirt-cross barred or
striped-whateve the store had cheapest,
and over that a waistcoat with cotton
back and some kind of front, looking like
a state map,it had so many coored patches.
There was never any cOat-none that re-
member. When he wore a coat he was an.
other kind of Jonathan-a store-dealing
Jonathan, or a church going Jonathan, or
a town-meeting Jonathan-not the goa
ishin', ;" or "bee-huntin' or "deer stalk
| in jonathan whom l knew.
There was wide straw hat, too, that
crowned his head and canted with the wind
and Topped about his neck, and would
have sailed down many mountain brook
but for a faithful leather strap that lay
buried in the half-moon whiskers and held
on for dear life. And from under the rim
of this thatch and half hidden in the mat
ted masses of badly adjusted hair, was
thin, peaked nose, bridged by pair of big
| spectacles, and somewhere below these
again, pitfall of a mouth covered with
| twigs of hair and an underbrush of beard,
while deep set in the whole tangle, like still
pools rejecting the blue and white of the
sweet heavens above, lay his eyes-eyes
that won you, kindly, twinkling, merry,
trustful and trusting eyes. Beneath these
pools of light, way down below-way down
where his heart beat warm, lived Jonathan.
His cabin was the last bit of single and
brick chimney on that side of the Franco
mia Notch. There were others, further
in the forest, with bark slants for shelter,
and forked sticks for swinging kettles; but
civilization ended with Jonathan's store
stove and the square of oil-cloth that Gov
cred his sitting-room floor. Upstairs un-
der the rafters, there was guest-chamber
smelling of pine boards and drying herbs,
and sheltering bed gridironed with bed
cord and softened by a thin layer of feath-
ers encased in a ticking and covered with a
cotton quilt This bed always made deer
impression upon me mentally and bodily
5 Mentally, because | always slept so soundll
in it whenever | visited Jonathan-ever
with the rain pattering on the roof and thu
wind soughing through the big pine-trees
and bodily, because-wel, because of TIN
cords Beside this bed was chair for m.
candle, and on the floor small, squar
| plank, laid loosely over the stovepipe hol
which, in winter, held the pipe.
In summer mornings Jonathan made al
: alarm clock of this plank, Topping itabou
with the end of fishing-rod poked up iron
below, never stopping until he saw IN
sleepy face peering down into his own
There was no bureau, only nail or so i
\ the scantling, and no washstand, of course
\ the tin basin at the well outside was better
Then there was an old wife that lived /
the cabin-an old wife made of sole leather
with yellow white hair and thin, pinche
face and body all angles-chest, arms, e'
erywhere, all outlined through the straigt
up and down calico dress. When sh
spoke, however, you stopped to listen
- was like a wood sound, low and far away
soft as bird call People living alone
the forests often have these voices.
Last, there was a dog-a mean, snivelini
stump-tailed dog of no particular breed I
kidney. One of those dogs whose ancestl
went to the bad many generations befo
he was born. A dog part foX-he got q
| l. Il, nd ri Wn IN
him ravenous; and part bull-terrier-th
made him ill-tempered; and all the re
poodle-that made him too lazy to NOV
v. The wife knew this dog and hung Il
bacon on a high nail out of his reach, al
y covered with a big dish the pies cooling {
a the bench; and the neighbors down Il
~ road knew him and chased him out of the
dairy cellars when he nosed into the mil
e. pans and cheese-pots; and even the It'll
tn children found out what coward he wa
. and sent him bowling home to his he
% under the porch, where he grumbled al
or pouted all day like spoit child that h
been half whipped Everybody knew hi
and everybody despised him for low-dow
thieving, lazy cur-everybody except JIG
Wy athan. Jonathan loved him-loved
~ weepy, smeary eyes, and his rough, bla
hair, and his fat, round body, short, STUN
. legs, and shorter. stumpy tail-especia
the tail Everything else that the dog p
lacked could be traced to the piccadillos
his ancestors-Jo nathan was responsi
for the tail.
"Ketched in bar-trap had sot up ba
in tibet green timber on Loon Pond maoI
tin six years ago last fall, when he wuz
pup" he would say, holding the dog in
=. lap-his favorite seat. 81 swan eff it war
too bad. Thinks l when l sot il I'll
the lettle cuss whar it wuz; them m
hev forgot it, 1t warn't a week afore
wuz runnin' rabbit and run right into
Wall, sir, them iron jaws took tibet tail
his'n off julluk a knife. He's allus b,
kinder sore agin me sence and dunno
he's right, fur it wuz mighty keerl5ss
very me. Wall, sir, he come yowlin' hum {
when he see me he did look saour-no
talkin-iest ez eff he wuz a-sayin'
think you're powerful cunnin' with
bar-traps, don't ye? Jest see what
done ter my tail. It's kinder split me
~ a dog All my fault, warn't it, Georg
Is so IN patting his head. (Only Jonathan VIC
liver call dog GeOrge.)
ngs, Here the dog would look up out of
T TfI eye as he spoke-he hadn't forgotten
vide bear-trap and never intended to let JC
il on than forget it either. Then Jonat
re T1 would admire ruefully the end of the stu
stroking him all the while with his
. hairy, paddle-like hands, George roo
his head under the flap of the parti-col
waistcoat.
the One night, remember, we had wa
,Iees, supper-the wife and | we were obi