New York (N.Y.) -- History -- 1775-1865 -- Fiction
Grandmother Underhill's name was Ann. She lived with her eldest son at
White Plains, who had fallen heir to his grandfather's farm. When a
widow she had gone back to her girlhood's home and taken care of her old
father. David, her eldest son, had come to work the farm. She had a
"wing" in the house, but she never lived by herself, for her son and the
grandchildren adored her.
Now she said to the baby's mother: "You put in Ann for a middle name and
I'll give her a hundred dollars as well, and my string of gold beads
that came from Paris. And I'll make her a nice down bed and pillows."
So Hannah Ann it was, and the little girl began life with a bank
account. She was a grave, sweet, dainty sort of baby, with wondering
eyes of bluish violet, bordering on gray. I think myself that she should
have had a prettier name, but people were not throwing away even
two-hundred-dollar chances in those days. Neither had they come to
Ediths and Ethels and Mays and Gladys. And they barbarously shortened
some of their most beautiful names to Peggy and Betsey and Polly and
Sukey.
Left to herself the little girl went on with her patchwork, and recalled
her visit to the city. There were so many aunts and cousins and so many
wonderful things to see. She must find out whether there would be any
snow and sleighrides in the winter. As for fruit and vegetables and eggs
and poultry the farmers were always sending them in to the city, she
knew that.
The prospect of a removal from Yonkers, where they had always lived, was
not so new to the elders. Stephen was in New York nearly all the week
now. Joseph was studying for a doctor. John was not in love with farming
and had a great taste for mechanical pursuits. Margaret, a tall, fair
girl of seventeen, was begging to be sent away to school another year,
and learn some of the higher branches people were talking about. Joe
thought she should. Her father was quite sure she knew enough, for she
could do all the puzzling sums in "Perkins' Higher Arithmetic," and you
couldn't trip her up on the hardest words. She went to a very good
school in the village. And the village was quite primitive in those
days. The steamboat-landing was the great focus of interest. It was all
rock and hills and a few factories were plodding along. The farm was two
good miles away.
The young people thought it a most auspicious turn in affairs that Uncle
Faid was coming back. His real name was Frederic. Since David had his
grandfather's farm, this had been divided between the two remaining
sons, but Frederic had been seized with the Western fever and gone out
to what was called the new countries. His sons had married and settled
in different places, one daughter had married and come East to live, and
Uncle Faid was homesick for the land of his youth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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