Deephaven and Selected Stories & SketchesJewett, Sarah Orne
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Deephaven and Selected Stories & Sketches
Jewett, Sarah Orne
Maine -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; United States -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction
It seems that after much persuasion she was induced to go to spend the
winter with a neighbor, her house having become uninhabitable, and she
was, beside, too feeble to live alone. But her fondness for her old home
was too strong, and one day she stole away from the people who took care
of her, and crept in through the cellar, where she had to wade through
half-frozen water, and then went up stairs, where she seated herself at
a front window and called joyfully to the people who went by, asking
them to come in to see her, as she had got home again. After this she
was very ill, and one day, when she was half delirious, they missed her,
and found her at last sitting on her hall stairway, which she was too
feeble to climb. She lived but a short time afterwards, and in her last
days her mind seemed perfectly clear. She said over and over again how
good God had always been to her, and she was gentle, and unwilling to be
a trouble to those who had the care of her.
Mr. Lorimer spoke of her simple goodness, and told us that though she
had no other sense of time, and hardly knew if it were summer or winter,
she was always sure when Sunday came, and always came to church when he
preached at East Parish, her greatest pleasure seeming to be to give
money, if there was a contribution. "She may be a lesson to us," added
the old minister, reverently; "for, though bewildered in mind, bereft of
riches and friends and all that makes this world dear to many of us, she
was still steadfast in her simple faith, and was never heard to complain
of any of the burdens which God had given her."
_Last Days in Deephaven_
When the summer was ended it was no sorrow to us, for we were even more
fond of Deephaven in the glorious autumn weather than we had ever been
before. Mr. Lancaster was abroad longer than he had intended to be at
first, and it was late in the season before we left. We were both ready
to postpone going back to town as late as possible; but at last it was
time for my friend to re-establish the Boston housekeeping, and to take
up the city life again. I must admit we half dreaded it: we were
surprised to find how little we cared for it, and how well one can get
on without many things which are thought indispensable.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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