Old Caravan Days

day of June, the Padgett carriage-horses faced the west,

den, which lay so deep that your face looked like a star in it. Robert Day Padgett, Mrs. Padgett's grandson, who sat on the back seat of the carriage, decided that he m

arly that the garden lay in heavy dew. These good friends stood around the carriage; one of them held the front-door key in trust for the new purchaser. They all called the straight old lady who held the lines grandma Padgett. She wa

ne neighbor. "The wild Western pra

on Tip can do very little here, and he can do well out there. I've lost my entire family except son Tip

quired before, at what precise point grandma Padgett's son was to meet the party; a

er," said another woman,

bserved the neighbor with the key. "She mov

derness. We came down the Ohio River by flatboat, and moved into this section when

h," said the squinting neighbor, "since

laugh. "But I don't know; I ain't used to the things, and I don't know wheth

near the back wheels. "But they do say you can

be gettin' through?

ndma Padgett resolutely. "It's a little better

nce," sighed the nei

bled by the length of pilgrimage before

Corinne. "Look out, Bobaday! You're dr

, turning his pepper-and-salt trousers up until the linings s

ed: then she impulsively stretched

countin' them sold till the wagon starts." So she gather

n he prided himself on distinct English-"you s'pose brother Tip's got a garden like this at the new place? Oh, the pretty little primroses! Who'll watch them pop op

ise too, and have caraway seeds to put in the cakes. Aunt Krin, did you k

e," said aunt Krin. "I guess w

opping on the warped floor of the porch to look into the empty house. It looked lonesome already. A mouse had ventur

re held by iron clamps to the wagon-sides. At the front opening sat Zene, resting his feet on the tongue. The rear opening was puckered to a round O by a drawing string. Swinging to and fro from the hind axle, hung the tar-bucket. A feed box was fitted ac

son was a fat black and white dog, who was obliged to keep his tongue out of his mouth to pant during the greater part of his days. He had fits of meditation, when Boswell galloped all

es. His affection for Johnson was extreme. He looked up to Johnson. If he startled a bird at the roadside, or scratched at the roots of a tree after his imagination, he came back to Johnson for approval, wagging his tail until it made his whole body undulate. Johnson sometimes condescended to rub a no

en-as a desperate venture, Missouri. The Old National Turnpike was then a lively thoroughfare. Sometimes a dozen white-covered wagons stretched along in company. All classes of society were represented among the movers. There were squalid lots to-be avoided a

that body always appeared to feel more important for driving on the 'pike. It was a glittering white highway the ruts worn by wheels were literally worn in stone. Yet never were roadsides as green as the sloping 'pike sides. No trees encroached

Reynoldsburg. To-day it is a decayed village, with many of its houses leaning wearily to one side, or forward

HE STAGE SWEPT B

meet adventures. They-had to stay at home and saw wood, and some of them would even be obliged to split it when they had a tin box full of bait and their fish-poles all ready for the afternoon's useful employment. There had been a time when Robert thought he would not like to be called "movers." Some movers fell entirely below his ideas. But now he saw how muc

ynoldsburg parade. He ought to be driving. In the course of the journey he

n-covered steeple on the church dazzle

peal to let the Reynoldsburgers know the stage was coming. The stage, billowing on springs, was paneled with glittering pictures, gilded on every part, and evidently lined with velvet. Travellers inside looked through the open windows with what aunt Corinne considered an air of opulent pride. She had always longed to explore the interior of a stage, and envied any child who had been shut in by the mysterious click and turn of the door-handle. The top was crowded with gentlemen looking only less important than the lu

d by stone walls as thick as the length of a short boy. They saw trains of cars trailing in and out; manufactories, and vistas of fine streets full of stores. They even saw the capitol building standing high up on its shaded grounds, many steps and massive pillars giving entrance to the structure which gran