Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1897-03-17
AUNT HITTY.


Old Mrs. ButterfieId had had her
third stroke Of paralysis, and died of a
Sunday night. She was all alone in
her little cottage on the river bank,
with no neighbor nearer than Croft's,
and nobody there but a blind man and
small boy. Everybody had told her
1t was foolish for an old woman of 70
to live alone in a house on the river
road, and everybody was pleased, In a
discreet and chastened fashion, of
course, that it had turned out exactly
as they had predicted
Aunt Mehitable Tarbox was walking
up to Milliken's Mills, with her little
black reticule hanging over her arm,
and noticing that there was no smoke
coming out of the chimney, and that
the hens were gathered about the
kitchen door clamoring for their break
fast, she thought 1t best to stop and
knock. No response followed the re-
peated blows from her hard knuckles.
She then tapped smartly on Mrs. But
terfeld's bedroom window with her
thimble finger. This proving OF no
avail, she was obliged to pry open the
kitchen shutter. split open a mosquito
netting with her shears, and crawl in
to the house over the sink. This was
a considerable feat for a somewhat
rheumatic elderly lady, but this one
never grudged trouble when she want
ed to find out anything.
When she discovered that her pre-
monitions were correct, and that old
Mrs. Butter1eld was indeed dead, her
grief at losing a pleasant acquaintance
was largely mitigated by her sense of
Importance at being first on the spot,
and chosen by Providence to take COM
mand Of the situation. There were no
relations in the village; there was no
woman neighbor within a mile; it was
therefore her obvious Christian duty
not only to take charge of the remains,
but to conduct such funeral as the
remains would have wished for herself
The fortunate vice-president sudden
ly called upon by destiny to guide the
ship Of state, the general who sees a
possible Victoria Cross in a hazardous
engagement, can have faint concep-
tion of Aunt Hitty's feelings on this
momentous occasion. Funerals were
the very breath Of her life. There was
no ceremony, either of public or pri-
vate import, that, to her mind, ap-
preached a funeral in real satisfying
interest. Yet, with distinct talent in
this direction, she had always been
"cabined, cribbed, confined within
hopeless limitations. She had assisted
In a secondary capacity at funerals in
the families Of other people, but she
would have reveled in personally con-
Quoted ones. The members of her own
family stubbornly refused to die, how
ever, even the distant connections liv-
Ing on and on to a ridiculous old age:
and II they ever did die, by reason of
a falling roof, shipwreck or conflagra-
tion, they generally died in Texas or
Iowa, or some remote state where Aunt
Hitty could not follow the hearse in
the first carriage. This blighted am
bition was heart sorrow of so deep
and sacred a character that she did not
even confess it to "Si." as her appen-
dage Of husband was called.
Now at last her chance for planning
a funeral had come. Mrs. Butterfeld
had no kith or kin save her niece.
Lyddy Ann, who lived in Andover, or
Lawrence, or Haverhill, Massachusetts
Aunt Hitty couldn't remember which
and hoped nobody else could. The
niece would be sent for when they
found out where she lived; meanwhile
the funeral could not be put off.
She glanced round the house prepar-
atory to locking it up and starting to
notify Anthony Croft. She would Just
run over and talk to him about order
ing the coffin; then she would attend
to all other necessary preliminaries
herself. The remains had been well-to-
do, and there was no occasion for sor-
did economy, so Aunt Hitty determined
in her own mind to have the latest
fashion in everything, including a sill
yer coffin plate. The Butterfield cof-
fin plates were thing to be proud of.
They had been sacredly preserved
years and years. and the entire collec-
tion-numbering nineteen in all-had
been framed, and adorned the walls of
the deceased lady's best room. They
were not of solid silver. it is true, but
cNGh bO ~ was q VI QlSlluCLlOn
to have belonged to family that could
afford to have nineteen coffin plates of
any sort.
Aunt Hitty planned certain dramatic
details as she walked down the road
to Croft's. 1t came to her In a burst
of inspiration that she would have two
ministers; one for the long prayer, and
one for the short prayer and the re-
marks. She hoped that Elder Weeks
would be adequate in the latter direc-
tIon. She knew she couldn't for the
life OF her think OF anything interest
ing about Mrs. Butteraeld, save that
she possessed nineteen coffin plates.
and brought her hens to Edgewood
every summer for their health; but sac
had heard Elder Weeks make moving
discourse out of less than that To be
sure, he needed priming, but she
was equal to that. There was Ivory
Browns funeral; how would that have
gone on X it hadn't been for her?
Wasn't the elder ten minutes late, and
what would his remarks have amount