Year: 1878

had been her fathers, and two wild
boys of ten and twelve years growth.
Jack and Dan were hard subjects for
step-father to rule, and Jason Carter
found his hands full. Naturally he
was quiet, gentle, but persistent man
in his youth he had run away to sea,
and for fifteen years had been common
sailor, which had pretty well knocked
the quiet out of and the patience into
him. In this time he had learned to
swear, as matter of course, though he
had been strictly brought up, and went
to church and Sunday school always.
His mother would have cried her eyes
out to hear him talk in this fashion, but
she never did; his father would have
used the rod, but he also was spared the
trouble, for both father and mother died
before Jason came back; and when he
found they were gone he never went
back to Tolland, but after he got tired
of sea going took to peddling notions
about the country, and at last married
the widow Coe and settled down in
Noppit.


He had stopped swearing long ago;
for under dear old Father Taylor's
preaching he had been converted between
his two last voyages, and though pro-
family had become habit with him, he
had conquered it at last, after years of
patient endeavor, and now was SO gentle,
pleasant, and pious, that Phoebe Coe
thought her last days would be her best
days


He had come to know the widow Coe
from being an old shipmate of her broth
er, John Wires who had also left sea
faring because too lame to climb rigging
so he set up a small shop in Boston,
where he sold tobacco, twine, and other
odds and ends; but he had been married
and had one son, called Jenison. This
boy was about the age of widow Goes
youngest son, for her brother had mar
ried soon after she did, while he was
| still a sailor; and when Jason Carter
began the peddling business, John
Wires had told him to stop when he
went through Scranton and see his sis
ter. The children were small, and their
father living, when Jason first saw them,
and they learned to look for "Uncle
Jase" every spring and fall with delight,


for he always brought them marbles,


tops, candy. string, and made them


bows and kites, sure passports to boy s


heart So when their poor drunken
father died and the widow found her.


self left without a penny, she moved


over to Noppit to live with her father


and when he died too, leaving her all he


had, the farm from which he had scratch


ed scanty living, and she found herself


alone and helpless, she listened favorably


to Jason Carter's proposal, for he was


as tired of his wandering life as she Of


her loneliness, and married him. The


boys were glad, for they loved him, and


they never had loved their own father


and Jason was as good to them as il


they were his own, though a certain
: thrill of emotion shook him when his
: baby daughter came, that never hac
Z troubled that worn old heart in any
- emergency of Jack or Dan. But ther


Celia was girl; of course that made
} it differerentl Jason, when compared
- with his predecessor, was as mild anc
e pleasant about the house as a spring


day after stormy winter. He becam
e a useful and prominent member in tn,
. Noppit church, and never was heard t.
: utter a profane or impatient word. Jacl
: and Dan loved him as much as health,


boys ever love anything but mischie
e and meals, and Phoebe was entirely hap
;. py.


i True. they were poor; Jason had
e few hundred dollars laid by, but tn


Noppit farm was too sterile to produc
70 crops enough to support the family. S
sr he laid out his little capital, or part Q
= :, it, in good breed of sheep, whic
IS found abundant living among mullens


hard-hack and huckleberry bushes, an
Ia proved in due time, profitable invest
" ment. For in those days dogs, th
le curse of New England, were by n
. means common in the country ther
y was no reason for keeping them, an


farmers had money and mutton instea
y, of hydrophobia and horrors. The woo
r.. sold well always and kept the family
e. stockings, for Jason's wife could spi
~ and knit with wonderful rapidity th
:. ~ lambs he had no room to raise were ser


to Hartford and sold to the butcher
K and now and then fat old wether wei
e; to the meatman's cart in the shape
IS juicy quarters. But the glory of tt
10 flock was big black faced ram, WI
or terrified marauding boys and intrudir


vagabonds, and asked no better fu
p" than to send somebody heels over hes
W whenever he had chance. Jack ar
'r,, Dan had brought him up from lam
AZ a. hood, but he was no longer lamb, al
a. Of his painstaking education only OF