Aunts -- Fiction; New England -- Fiction; Older women -- Fiction; Physicians -- Fiction
parsonage with the load, and tried round till they found a window
unfastened, and in they carried every single thing, into the elder's
study, and then loaded up with his rattletraps, and back to the
Homestead. Working like beavers they were, every minute of the
afternoon. By five o'clock they had their job done; and then in goes
Tom and asks dear old Grandmother Darracott, who could not leave her
room, and thought every fox was a cosset lamb, did she think father and
mother (they were at the meeting too, of course) would let him and Sol
Candy go and take tea and spend the night at Plum-tree Farm, three miles
off, where our old nurse lived. Grandmother said 'Yes, to be sure!' for
she was always pleased when the children remembered Nursey; so off those
two Limbs went, and left their works behind them.
"Evening came, and Conference was over at last; and here comes the
squire home, stepping along proud and stately as ever, but mortal
head-weary under the pride of his wig, for he was an old man, and
grudged his age, never sparing himself. He went straight into his
study--it was dusk by now--and dropped into the first chair, and so to
sleep. By and by old Martha came and lighted the candles, but she never
noticed anything. Why people's wits should wear out like old shoes is a
thing I never could understand; unless they're made of leather in the
first place, and sometimes it seems so. The squire had his nap out, I
suppose, and then he woke up. When he opened his eyes, there in front of
him, instead of his tall mahogany desk, was a ramshackle painted thing,
with no handles to the drawers, and all covered with ink. He looked
round, and what does he see but strange things everywhere; strange to
his eyes, and yet he knew them. There was a haircloth sofa and three
chairs, and on the walls, in place of his fine prints, was a picture of
Elder Weight's father, and a couple of mourning pictures,
weeping-willows and urns and the like, and Abraham and Isaac done in
worsted-work, that he'd seen all his days in the parsonage parlor. Very
likely they are there still."
"Yes," said Tommy, "I see 'em in his settin'-room."
"_Saw_, not _see_!" said Mrs. Tree. "Your grandfather spoke better
English than you do, Tommy Candy. Learn grammar while you are young, or
you'll never learn it. Well, sir, the next I know is, I was sitting in
my high chair at supper with father and mother, when the door opens and
in walks the old squire. His eyes were staring wild, and his wig cocked
over on one ear--he was a sight to behold! He stood in the door, and
cried out in a loud voice, 'Thomas Darracott, who am I?'
"My father was a quiet man, and slow to speak, and his first thought was
that the squire had lost his wits.
"'Who are you, neighbor?' he says. 'Come in; come in, and we'll see.'
"The squire rapped with his stick on the floor. 'Who am I?' he shouted
out. 'Am I Jonathan Tree, or am I that thundering, blundering
gogglepate, Ebenezer Weight?'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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