Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- Periodicals
One especial pleasure was to walk along the gravelled path that skirted
the smooth, level stretch of lawn at the back of the house, and thus to
reach the brow of the hill overlooking the "farm" and the river. There
were seats on the edge of this bluff, and a large spring-board on which
one might ride and jump to one's heart's content. By following this path
still farther, and to the left, one soon deserted the well-kept lawn and
found one's self on a narrow, winding walk overhanging a deep, wooded
ravine, in the depths of which a little brook ran curving about among
the ferns and daisies; and presently, far out of sight of the house, in
shade so dense as to lend a certain pleasing enchantment, one came upon
a rustic summer-house, with odd, three-cornered-seats, and a table
surrounding the tree-trunk that supported the centre of the roof.
There were manifold other out-of-door enjoyments, such as visiting the
pigeon-house, and, as a rare favor, rioting in the scented hay in the
loft over the barn, visiting the gardener's wife (whose home was in that
part of the old Livingston mansion which its master and time had allowed
to stand), and being permitted to draw water from the ancient well,
about which hung so many stories of generations past. How exciting it
was, and with what delicious awe one listened, when the little lady who
was a fairy grandmamma instead of a fairy godmother in the household
told a certain story regarding this well! It was a story before the time
of her own birth, when two of her older sisters were very tiny girls.
One day, when the mother was busy in superintending some homely task
(such as the manufacturing of the "cream cheese," perhaps, for which she
was noted), the baby of two years toddled in and began to lisp over and
over the same broken words, "Tatie in 'ell, Tatie in 'ell." She had
repeated them many times, with increasing insistence, before the busy
mother realized that they possessed a meaning. "Tatie in 'ell, Tatie in
'ell," the little one said, pulling at her mother's gown, half crying as
she spoke; and then it dawned upon the latter that her baby had
something serious to tell. She yielded to the little importunate hands
upon her dress, and followed the child out of doors to the well and
there looked down. "Katie" was indeed in the well, as the lisping tongue
had tried to say, and, gazing into the darkness below, the mother could
see the frightened, pitiful little face turned up to her, while two
small hands convulsively grasped the edge of the great bucket. The
husband and father was away from home, all the men employed about the
place were working at a distance, and there was no time to lose: those
frail hands must soon relax their hold, and the child was sorely
terrified and begging to be saved. As the mother hesitated, in an agony
of doubt, out from the house came a stout, elderly serving-woman, who
had lived in the family for many years, and who was especially devoted
to little Kate.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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