Barre evening telegram. (Barre, Vt.) 1898-19??, 1899-11-28
OLD AUNT HARRIET

edge OF the wood. Sitting on the back
porch, we could see her wel-sweep and the
smoke rising from her chimney.
Whenever we had company, Aunt Har
riet came up to ask their names and invest
gate their social standing.
Once she asked me the name of the
strangers who were, sitting on the porch
with mamma. l said "Mr. and Mrs
Smith"
She looked at me a minute curiously,
from over the top of her stick, and said:
Honey, yo' don't mean old Ebenezel
Smiths son, do yo'?"
l was unable to answer this question, not
being acquainted with Mr.. Smiths pedi
gree
Mamma came into the kitchen just then
to give the orders to the cook about dinner.
Aunt Harriet turned to her, and said:
What Smith is dem, Miss Jane!"
Mamma replied:
MIR. Ebenezer Smiths son and his wife. y
Good Ian, Miss janet No' don't tell
me dat yo' let dem no count Smiths come
here! Why, dey amt fit to wipe yo' shoes
Now, do hope, Miss Jane, yo're gwne to
bring dis chile up to what's fttin' TO 4
quality family. 'Soshatin wild Smiths My
ole marster would come right outen dat
vault, down dere in de berryin' ground ef
he knowed any OBJ his chillen went long oh
Smiths"
And she went off, bemoaning herself,
down the lane.
Her groanings were so dreadful that Mrs
Smith asked:
us that poor old colored woman sick ?
Can't you do anything for her!'
Az which I hurst ont 1o,,uhnp and n 4
to leave the room, letting mamma explain
Aunt Harriet's ailment.
Dear Mrs. Smith! She little guessed that
aunty's groans were over her low origin,
or she would not have been so sympathetic
When the war closed, papa went down
to Aunt Harriet's cabin, and said
"Aunty, you are free now to go where
you please. | have no right to keep you
| here against your will"
Papa says q wasn't born then, so give
| the story as he tells it, that Old aunty stood
a minute, with her arms raised above her
head, then stretched them over him, as il
| in blessing.
MARS John, I was on dis yer place TO
cher yo' was bon, an, please de Lawd,
I'll stay on it till I'm carried to the grade.
yard down yander, an put at ole marster's
| feet"
This was very pathetic, and papa was
moved to tears, when aunty spoiled all the
grand effect by saying suddenly:
"Now, git outen dis house, an doan' 70
come down here no mo- wild any OBJ yo'
impdent talk! Go off dis place, indeed!
Yore crazy, chile-crazy as a loon.'
When little children, Tom and | used to
go to see aunty two or three times each
week. Generally we carried two or three
eggs, some flour and molasses, and came
home with gingerbread or tatfy made by
aunty, after famous recipes of her OWN,
which she would never tell, and which we
thought no other cook could equal.
Aunt Harriet never realizes that papa is
grown up; so, of course, looks on Tom and
Inc still as mere infants.
Coming up for a visit, one day, as she
rested her stick on the porch step, she said;
Honey, who is dat young gal Tommy
had in de buggy wild him yistiddy? Dey
stopped at my house TO gourd OF water.
she called me Aunt IIaret, too
| tod her, in the quietest manner, that
it was the young lady my brother was en-,
gagged to, and that they were to be married
in the fall.
She sat down in limp sort of way, as
if paralyzed at the news
AT last mamma came out, and she asked
SIS it so, Miss Jane?"
| explained what she meant, and mamma
said it was true.
After a long silence, she got up and hob
bled off without word. | had to run alter
and coax her back. Mamma remarked:
"Why, take on so, aunty? lie is young
man, YOU know, though he seems like II
Child to YOU
"Oh, mel Aunt Harriet groaned.
She kept this up, groanlng ard holding
her head as if in extreme pain, until papa,
coming in a few minutes later, stopped,
and asked what was the matter.
After it was explained, he undertook to
win aunty over to better frame of mind.
He so far succeeded that she shook hands
with Hattie, when she and Tom came IN.
But she sat looking at them, Tom SAID, as
if they were both condemned to be hanged.
ever and anon mutterng:
"My baby One OBJ my chile's chillen!"
She was never fully reconci,ed, and Hat
tie saws that even now that they have been
married for several years she shivers when
ever Aunt Harriet looks at her and mutters.
She feels as if it were witch weaving a
spell.
She relented toward Baby Philip, though.
From the first time she saw him she tool;
wondrous fancy to him. Taking him in
her arms, she said:
"Mv baby's gran'chile! Ole 1lar'et's
been here too long. The chillen gifts ahead
oh her"
Every summer, when they come, she takes
little Phil under her charge.
10 1S
orally lives a, Aunt !larriet's.
The other day, they both came home to
gether, aunty hobbing along, and Phil
dancing at her side.
lie rushed up to Tom and said:
"Papa, take some taffy; it's nice. Aunty
made it for me-"
Tom looked at me, and tears came into
his eyes, and my own felt very dim: we
thought of our childhood and our taffy.
Just then papa entered, and Phil rushed
IN to him, with plate outstretched, saying;
"Take some, grandpa; it's good.
"I'l wager it is, youngstcr, if Aunt Har-
riot made it. She used to make it for grand
pa when he was a boy
At which Phil opened his eyes very wide.
at the bare idea of grandpa's ever being a
boy.
Aunt Harriet swayed herself back and
forth, and said
Oats so. I made taf1y for my chile, den
his chillcn, den his gran'chile. Time TO ole
Harriet to be leavin' dis worP."
"No, no, aunty," Tom said, ".not yet, !
want you to do as well by Phil as you did
for his father"
At which there was chuckle.
$50 long, boy! Yo' al'ays was impi-
dent chile"
III L. mani ln nlr Ia tho cnhin she