Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1907-09-21

| first robins built their nests. How
charming aud airy it all was in May,
when the days were melting into sum-
| mer, and how really beautiful and full
of life were all of these venerable New
England hopes!
After the Gid house was burned I Wis
| tied the plaos and brought away few
| bricks as souvenir of home of hero
| ic memorieS--of happy memories, too,
| if we except a single tragedy of the In
| dian war. The great orchards were
| gone. the old barns and their swallows.
| Only the well remained and heap of
burned bricks and the blackened out
line of the cellar wall.
1t was a house full of legends and
| stories-wonder stories that once led
stranger to look upon it with kind OF
superstitious awe. 1t had its historic
lore, and, like all great colonial houses,
| its ghost lore, but the most thrilling
legend associated with the old walls
/ was known as 1.-THE Two Brass Ket-
ties" The legend may have grown
with time, but It was well based on
| historic facts and was often told at the.
| ample firesides of three generations Of
Dorchester people.
The dinner, like Uncle Zebedee's
prayer, seemed never TO end. After the
| many courses OF food there was an
"and"-and pies and apples and nuts
and all sorts of sweetmeats.
"Uncle Zebedee,' piped.
'Well, dearie."
aunt said that you would tell US the
story of the two brass kettles after din
ner"
'Why, dearie; yes, yes. I've been
| telling that story these eighty years,
come October. Didn't you never hear
it? 1 thought all little shavers knew
about that The two brass kettles-yes.
They're in the old cupboard now.
Bring them out, and l will tell you all
about 'em. 1 shan't live to tell that
story many more years. Maybe shall
never tell 1t again"
The servants brought out the two
kettles into the kitchen where we
could see them through the wide din
ing room door.
put 'ern in the middle of the floor
before the window" said Uncle Zebe-
dee. There. that will do. That is
Just where they were when the Indian
came. You see the Window" he
added.
It had a great. deep set easement.
Grapevines half curtained it now on
the outside. and the slanting sun shone
through them. its beams glimmering
on the old silver of the table. 1t
was past the middle of the afternoon
of the shortening days of autumn.
| "You have all heard of Philips
] war" continued Uncle Zebedee, leaning
forward from his chair on his crutch.
Everybody has. 1t destroyed thirteen
towns of the old colony and for two
years filled every heart with terror.
Philip struck here, there and every
| where. No one could tell where he
would strike next The sight of an
| Indian lurking about in the woods or
| looking out of the pines and bushes
usually meant massacre.
zone Sunday in July, in 1875, the
family went to meeting, leaving two
small children, boy and a girl, at
home in the charge of a maid named
Experience. The kitchen then was
as you see it now. The window was
open; the two brass kettles had been
secured on Saturday and placed bot
tom upward on the floor just as you
| see them there.
ct was a blazing July day. The
| hayfieldS were silent. There was an
| odor of hayricks in the air, and the
bobolinks, 1 suppose, toppled about in
the grass and red winged blackbirds
| piped among the wild wayside roses
| just as they do now. 1 wish that you
could have seen the old hayfields in
the long July afternoons, all scent and
| sunshine. 1t makes me long for my
| bOyhood again just to think of them.
But shall never NOW again.
Let me see. The two children were
sitting on the floor near the two ket-
ties. Experience was preparing dinner
and had made fire in the great brick
oven, which heated the bricks, but did
not heat the room.
| well, on passing between the oven
and the window she CHANGED to look
toward the road, when she saw a sight
that fixed her eyes and caused her to
] uP 1ACA Will uOrTOr. 1uSL
/ like that
] rsUncle Zebedee threw up both hands.
like exclamation points, and let his
crutch drop into his lap.
swell, the maid only lost her wits
for a9few moments. She few to the
window and closed it and bolted the
door. Then she put one of the children
under one of the brass kettles and the
other child under the other kettle and
took the iron shovel and lifted it so and
waited to see what would happen.
and''427 1aa sac" a'HaAA
baIUncIe Zebedee lifted his crutch, like
an. Interrogation point, and we could
easily imagin9s the aefitnd& 6f the ex-
cited maid lo sssaa6 2liiifs
IS "And-where was I"aaI E"o
''rhe children were under the two
brass kettles, and the maid was stand
L ;v~ I,a Ay.a oh in