The Light in the Clearing: A Tale of the North Country in the Time of Silas WrightBacheller, Irving
General
The Light in the Clearing: A Tale of the North Country in the Time of Silas Wright
Bacheller, Irving
New York (State) -- Fiction; Wright, Silas, 1795-1847 -- Fiction
I observed that old Kate sat on a front seat with her hand to her ear
and Grimshaw beside his lawyer at a big table and that when she looked
at him her lips moved in a strange unuttered whisper of her spirit. Her
face filled with joy as one damning detail after another came out in the
evidence.
Aunt Deel and Uncle Peabody came to the village that day and sat in the
court room. They had dinner with us at the schoolmaster's, but I had
little chance to talk with them. Aunt Deel went up to my room with me
and slyly gave me some fresh cookies wrapped in a piece of newspaper
which she carried in a little basket bought from the Indians.
"Here's somethin' else," she said. "I was keepin' 'em for
Chris'mas--ayes!--but it's so cold I guess ye better have 'em
now--ayes!"
Then she gave me a pair of mittens with a red fringe around the
wristbands, and two pairs of socks.
I remember that my uncle laughed at the jests of Mr. Hacket but said
little and was not, I thought, in good spirits. They went home before
the examination ended.
The facts hereinbefore alleged, and others, were proven, for the tracks
fitted the shoes of Amos. The young man was held and presently indicted.
The time of his trial was not determined.
I received much attention from young and old in the village after that,
for I found soon that I had acquired a reputation for bravery, of the
slender foundation for which the reader is well aware. I was invited to
many parties, but had not much heart for them and went only to one at
the home of Nettie Barrows. Sally was there. She came to me as if
nothing had interrupted our friendship and asked if I would play Hunt
the Squirrel with them. Of course I was glad to make this treaty of
peace, which was sealed with many kisses as we played together in those
lively games of the old time. I remember that I could think of nothing
in this world with which to compare her beauty. I asked if I could walk
home with her and she said that she was engaged, and while she was as
amiable as ever I came to know that night that a kind of wall had risen
between us.
I wrote a good hand those days and the leading merchant of the village
engaged me to post his books every Saturday at ten cents an hour.
Thenceforward until Christmas I gave my free days to that task. I
estimated the sum that I should earn and planned to divide it in equal
parts and proudly present it to my aunt and uncle on Christmas day.
One Saturday while I was at work on the big ledger of the merchant I ran
upon this item:
October 3. S. Wright--To one suit of
clothes for Michael Henry
from measures furnished by
S. Robinson $14.30
Shirts to match 1.70
I knew then the history of the suit of clothes which I had worn since
that rainy October night, for I remembered that Sam Robinson, the
tailor, had measured me at our house and made up the cloth of Aunt
Deel's weaving.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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