Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1896-11-26
THIRTEEN AT DINNER
A NEW ENGLAND REMINrscENcE.
[copyright, lsOe, By the Author.l

ICopyright, 1896, by the Author
Everybody in Misery Cove knew Aunt
Mary 'Lisher, relict for so years and
more of Elisha Dewbery and who lived
with her daughter Hitty in the old
house on the Gloster road. The Cove
was very full Of old folks, but not all
of them were thus made appellatively
distinctive-only the salt Of the earth.
There, for instance, were Aunt Nancy
Ben, Aunt Betsey Isrul, Aunt Mary
Sam, Aunt Abigail Richard, and so
on, every one relict of some good man
long since departed, for the Covers
did not believe in a surplusage Of
words in their daily speech, and SO, in
stead of saying, MARY, the widow of
Elisha" they referred to her as plain
Mary fisher, affixing to her own pra-
nomen that of her deceased husband.
Those good people who were still blessed
with conjugal partners were addressed
without the distinguishing prefix of
aunt or uncle.
1t seemed to me, when / became old
enough to reason, that had been born
into community composed entirely of
relations, more or less remote, but when
had at last successfully wrestled with
the problem l found that our family
was not connected by marriage with any
other in the village. / mention this in
passing merely that the reader may
not be plunged into the genealogical
slough in which wallowed until extri-
Gated. Aunt Mary fisher, then, was
not my aunt at all, but an adaptive rel
ative, as it were. However, that made
no difference in the eyes of childhood,
which accepts things as it finds them
and asks no impertinent questions Of
the gods who bring gifts in their hands.
Aunt Mary fisher was little, worn
and wrinkled old woman, with kindly
face, from which peered two bright
black eyes, and form bent nearly dou-
BILE with the infrmities of years. She
was somewhere between 20 and 80 years
of age when first knew her, but il 1
had been asked at that time I should
have said she was at least 100.
My first acquaintance with Aunt
Mary fisher was, you may say, SYM
pathetic one, dating from certain day
when I saw her in my fathers shop. It
was the ordinary country store, in
which, besides the common groceries,
was carried a small stock of bottled
medicines, essences and such like "no-
tions - 1t seems that Aunt Mary 'Lisher
had one or two infrmities in addition
to those which people Of her age gener-
ally carry-she was addicted to the use
Of opium and tobacco. And, as her
blood relations had decided antipathies
against the drug and the weed Tin
vicarious way), they had forbidden all
stores and shops in the township to sup
ply the old lady with her tipple and her
smoke. The shifts she was driven to in
obtaining them-for get them she did
were sometimes pitiful to witness, and
from perhaps an innate sympathy with
the "under dog" in fight took sides
with her as against her relatives and
my worthy parent So it happened that
whenever l was on duty in the shop,
and Aunt Mary 'Lisher would come Gas
she always did twice a week. osteDsi-
bly, to purchase an ounce of tea, or half
a pound of sugar, she went home much
happier than if my father had been be-
hind the counter.
1t may not seem, then, at all unrea-
sonable that she should hold reciprocal