Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1896-10-26

WIZ was respected DOI0 OileAA GAiO.
The adoption of Louetta Lucia had
been matter of intense interest IN the
town. It was Just like Miss Mehltable,
they said, 20 take child that no one
else would have. But all the townspeo-
pie were kind to the plain, shy, un-
childish stranger.
Day by day Miss Mehitable and Loli-
eta grew nearer to each other, the one
SO glad to give love, the other starving
to receive it. Little by little the child
opened her heart, sure of sympathy, and
Miss Mehitable was learning what
strange and unnatural product an orphan
asylum child is.
Louetta's mind was SO full OF queer
fancies that Miss Mehitable was net
surprised, that stormy night when our
story opens. that the child's thought
should turn as it did, and to hear her
ask if it would not be ''nice to have
lot Of dead folks all your own.
Dead folks, Louetta?' she said.
Yes, answered the child simply;
'grandfathers and grandmothers and
aunts and uncles, all your own, with
high fence around to keep folks out.
All, it must be SO nice!'' Louetta's face
frightened at the thought.
Yes, DEAR" said Miss Mehitabla
softly. II know what you mean. 70
have ones dead together is q comfort. -
But, Miss Mehitable, do you think
it would be wicked to adopt GRANDPA
theirs, if they'd been dead SO long they
had no one LETT? There are two soldiers
of the Revolution in the old part Of the
graveyard, and they have no one to love
them and take care Of them, and they'd
make such nice grandfathers for me, ii
you think they wouldn't object. Do
you? want some dead relations sov'
The nearsighted eyes were dim with
tears.
"Who are they?" asked Miss Mehita-
BILE.
Zone is Captain Jonathan Martin and
the other is Lieutenant Thomas Ed
munds, and they died before 1900.
NO" said Miss Mehitable, in an
swer to the child's inquiry, 1.-THE Mar
tin family are all gone, and the last Ed
munds moved west years ago. There is
no one living who would care, and as
for the dead-I don't think they'd OBJ
ject But what good will they do you?"
''Ah," said Louetta, with fervor,
"they will be such a comfort to ne
nights I can make stories up about
them after / go to bed, and I can take
care Of their graves and put wreaths on
them on their birthdays, and perhaps
you will have the headstones straight
ened, and | will clean and scrape them,
and then on Decoration day they viii
put flags and flowers there, and ! shall
feel SO proud and $3.50 respectable!"
So with Miss Mehitable S consent and
aid Louetta Luella adopted her grand
fathers.
All through April the child worked
every pleasant day after school hours
patiently digging up witch grass and
weeds from the neglected mounds and
the graveled walk that ran beside
them. Miss Mehitable had the sagging
headstones Strengthened, but it was Lou
eta who laboriously scraped and clean
ed them till the old inscriptions were
legible.
There, too, the first wild flowers were
carefully transplanted, and on Sunday
afternoons Miss Mehitable and Louetta
often walked there, and the child show
ed with delight the improvements made
during the week.
Il gave Grandfather Martin all of the
cowslips, for he was SO fond of them,
you know. Grandma says he always
kept bowl Of them on the sitting room
table while they were in blossom. -
The child flied her eyebrows signif-
cantly and whispered, make believe. -
"But Grcrdpa Edmunds liked violets
best so I've given them all to him. -
f7711 of VT hi
tales of these pseudo grandfathers who
had died nearly 100 years before.
Royton, like many old towns in New
Eng land, was rich in Revolutionary lore,
and in her graveyard were buried sew
eral of those who, by dying, had helped !
to make the nation. But there was so
much holy zeal felt for those who had |
died to save the nation that the Revolu-
tionary soldiers were neglected, and |
Royton almost forgot that the blood |
shed in 1776 was the seed that brought
that eternal crop of glory in 1861.
There they lay, in an obscure part IF
the old cemetery, out of the line Of |
march on Memorial day, out of the line
Of men S thoughts. The sound of the |
fife and drum stole over the hill once
year, and the odor of blossoms strewn
Oh patriots graves, but they were not
for them
Because of Fort Donelson and Gettys-
burg the glory of Bunker Hill and Sar-
atoga had grown dim.
Louetta worked SO faithfully that
when Memorial day dawned her grand
fathers graves were in perfect order,
and nothing remained to be done but to
decorate the front of the shop Miss
bunting and flags were the
best she could find in Boston, and as
she impressed into her service any COM
petent man who passed there was no
lack of help.