Alonzo and Melissa; Or, The Unfeeling Father: An American TaleMitchell, I. (Isaac)
History
Alonzo and Melissa; Or, The Unfeeling Father: An American Tale
Mitchell, I. (Isaac)
Gothic fiction; Love stories; United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Fiction
They arrived at another village, and alighted at an inn, where Melissa
and her aunt tarried, while the servant was ordered out by the latter on
some business unknown to Melissa. When they again got into the carriage
she perceived several large packages and bundles, which had been
deposited there since they left it. She enquired of her aunt what they
contained. "Articles for family use, child," she replied, and ordered
the driver to proceed.
They passed along winding and solitary paths, into a bye road which led
through an unfrequented wood, that opened into a rocky part of the
country bordering on the Sound. Here they stopped at the only house in
view. It was a miserable hut, built of logs, and boarded with slabs.
They alighted from the carriage, and Melissa's aunt, handing the driver
a large bunch of keys, "remember to do as I have told you," said she,
and he drove rapidly away. It was with some difficulty they got into the
hut, as a meagre cow, with a long yoke on her neck, a board before her
eyes, and a cross piece on her horns, stood with her head in the door.
On one side of her were four or five half starved squeaking pigs, on the
other a flock of gaggling geese.
As they entered the door, a woman who sat carding wool jumped up, "La
me! she cried, here is Miss D----, welcome here again. How does madam
do?" dropping a low curtsey. She was dressed in a linsey woolsey short
gown, a petticoat of the same, her hair hanging about her ears, and
barefoot. Three dirty, ragged children were playing about the floor, and
the furniture was of a piece with the building. "Is my room in order?"
enquired Melissa's aunt. "It hasn't been touched since madam was here,"
answered the woman, and immediately stalked away to a little back
apartment, which Melissa and her aunt entered. It was small, but neatly
furnished, and contained a single bed. This appendage had been concealed
from Melissa's view, as it was the opposite side of the house from
whence she alighted. "Where is John?" asked Melissa's aunt. "My husband
is in the garden, replied the woman; I will call him," and out she
scampered. John soon appeared, and exhibited an exact counter part of
his wife. "What does madam please to want?" said he, bowing three or
four times. "I want you John," she answered, and immediately stepped
into the other room, and gave some directions, in a low voice, to him
and his wife. "La me! said the woman, madam a'nt a going to live in that
doleful place?" Melissa could not understand her aunt's reply, but heard
her give directions to "first hang on the teakettle." This done, while
John and his wife went out, Melissa's aunt prepared tea in her own room.
In about an hour John and his wife returned, and gave the same bunch of
keys to Melissa's aunt, which she had given to the servant who drove the
carriage.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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