Year: 1874

Suuue0-dll dl OuCSs NClI, IL uluSl ID


something like a half-a-dozen vear


ago-and left his wife and so many


chiIdren-five children or else six


| don't know which"


"You don't say!" calculated Mr.


Averill, passing his honey plate fol


the third time Now, evidently, ht


had not lost his sweet tooth.


After supper mother washed mp the


dishes and talked, and Mr.. Averil


smoked his pipe and listened. Il
was the first time ever allowed any


body to smoke in my house, but
had nothing to say now. 1 even


filled his pipe and lighted it for him.


And then he told me the story of
his life, which had been full OF


strange and interesting adventures.


He was evidently a man who did not


read much and who could not have
written well, but he could talk; not
always grammatically, perhaps, but
always with force and fascinati, n.


1t seemed that years and years


ago, his father and my mothers fa-
ther lived in a town in the valley of
the Kennebec. Ny mothers father


ther was large farmer, and Mr.. Av-
erilPs was very small farmer with
large family. So his youngest
son, Sam, came to work for my
grandfather. Ny mother and my
Aunt Augusta were young girls
they were twins, and | suppose by
the way they look now that they
must have been pretty then. My
mother was early engaged and mar
ried to my father; but there was
Augusta, and there was Sam; and
where one was you might usually
find the other near at hand. Sam
never said anything, he was not of a
delnonstrative kind, but he knew how
he felt, and he supposed Augusta
knew too.


So the years budded and blossom
ed and brought forth fruit, until at
last Sam went down to Connecticut
to take charge of a saw mill for an
uncle of his. He wrote to Aunt
and she wrote to him: and now and
and then he came to Maine OH busl-
ness, always going to my GRANDPA
theirs before he went home, and car
rying himself toward Augusta like
an accepted lover.


After few years he found him
self possessed of twelve thousand
dollars and Immediately went to work
to spend it. He went abroad, to
England and Rome and Egypt and
Paris and Germany and Sweden
aud Russia and everywhere. When
he came home at last it was with on
ly fifty dollars in his pocket. So nex'
he went out among the copper mines
of Lake Superior, and in time was
again possessed of twelve thousand
dollars.


''Now l will gohome and mar
ry Augusta, and settle down." said
he to himself. But he didn't say it
to anybody else. 1t never occurred
to him that it was necessary.


Meantime my Aunt had not stood
like rose in a pot, waiting for the
gardener to come and pick it. She
cast out her roots and threw up her
branches and bloomed as though it
was enough to fulfill the laws OF
being and beauty for their own
sake.


In that simple neighborhood, work
was supposed to be the chief end of
everybody. So Augusta learned
vest-m1king, and then went to Coos,
where her brother Nathan lived, and
set up for herself.


Coos, was little crum of a town
in those days; but it held up its head
and had its stores and its mills, and
its shops, and it's great white meet
ing house on a hill, with galleries on
three sides and square pews and
high box pulpit.


The first Sunday after Augusta
went there, she climbed the hill, of
course, and went into the front pew
with Uncle Nathan and his wife
She was fashionably dressed in a
black Grape gown, a scarlet shawl,
and a white silk bonnet with pink
roses inside. Her cheeks were as
pink as her roses, and her eyes were
as black as her gown.


There was no need that Mr.. Keel
er should point her out to the young
men, but he took the pains to do it.
Mr.. Keeler, the minister, was a lit
tie, lank man, as plain and gray as a
dor-bug, and so afraid Of the pomps
and vamties that he would't wear
buttons on his coat. No sooner had
his eyes fallen on Augusta, settling
herself in the front pew, like a vari-
gated tulip, than he dropped the
subject he had started upon for his
and began to preach against
conformity to the world. He was a
earnest man, and he preach
ed with all his might, emphasizing
and illustrating the words by point
ing with his blunt finger at the scar-
let shawl and pink roses. So if any
body had neglected to look at them
before, they looked then.


Among those who were obedient
to the ministerial forefnger was
.bner Stanton, the village black
smith.


Abner Stanton's heart was a good |
deal like his iron-not easily melted
but when it once had been ham,
nered into shape, there it was
liked, and steadfast. And to-day
her eyes went through it like red
hot arrows as he peered around at
her, from behind one of the pillars
in the gallery.


The next day he came to get a vest
made. The day after he came to
bring the buttons for it; and the next |
day after that he thought, as he WAS
going by, he would call and see if |
she had everything she needed and
how soon the vest would be done. |
It was not two days more before he
was there again to bring a letter.


"I happened to see it at the post
office when l went after my paper,
and so drought it along. Icould
as well as not" said he.


A