Real Folks

r. Her having the baby was nothing. Her ha

onet, and wooed her sweetly with it in her youth, had anything to do with it, cannot be told; but in those prescriptive days of quiet which followed the domestic advent, the name did somehow grow together in the fancy of Mrs. Luther; and in due time the

his mother "Mark,"-in his turn, as they grew old together, cut his sister down to "Luke." Then Luther Grapp called them both "The Apostles." And not far wrong; since

and Luke four. They crept out of their small trundle-bed in their mother's room a

oors and windows, but not yet the blue meeting-houses on the yellow wall-paper, by which they always knew when it was really morning; and while Mrs. Grapp was taking that last beguiling nap in which one is conscious that one means to get up presently, and rests so sweetly on one's good intentions, letting the hazy mirage of t

tted softly into their cricket-stables; and then-what else was there t

ting back where the world had not begun; surely one must do something wond

chen-space. In the deep fire-place lay a huge mound of gray ashes, a Vesuvius, under which red bowels of fire lay hidden. In one corner of the chimn

ine and sparkle when he pulled it out again, like the red-hot, hissing iron Jack-the-Giant-Killer struck into the one-eyed monster's eye. So he shoved it in; and forgot it there, while he told Luke-very much twisted and dislocated,

what?" s

h the tongs, he pulled back the rod, till the glowing end, a foot or m

u daresn't put y

wouldn't, at even fo

white, tender, p

sent her out of her dreams and out of her bed, and with one single im

ute touch; but the sweet flesh shriveled, and the fierce anguish

ful, shivering cries, as the m

drawer, holding the child fast, and picking up as she could with one hand, cotton wool, and sweet-oil flask, and old linen

s the air was shut away, and the oil felt mome

are-hn't, a

ittle

es that thrilled through and through with every pang that touched the little frame, hers also. Mothers never do part bonds with

s! What di

t standing up stiff and manful, with bare common sense, when brought to bay. And then he marched awa

uted at the penalty as such, with an, "I guess you'd see me!" And there

Luke was the same little fool as ever; that was not

ver walls and rocks, and rafters and house-roofs. But the burnt foot saved Luke's neck scores of times, doubtle

; but one day something happened-things do happen as far bac

solemn festivals, weddings and burials, Thanksgivings and quiltings; or devoutly, now and then to set the shrine in order, shut the blinds

y, and Grashy, the girl, was up-stairs in her kitchen-chamber-bedroom, with a

ake Ontario,

of them. To play it, they turned the room into one vast shipwreck, of upset and piled up chairs, stools, boxes, buckets, and what else they could lay hands

as Captain Cook; to-day, it was no less t

," and put into their hands, with charges, of a Sunday, to keep them still, they had got these things, jumbl

cus, tumbling up against the parlor

ut looking up, and paddling with the

den thin

r, and her sun-bonnet from another behind the door, and made her way through the apartment as wel

tles," was her injunction. "I'm goin'

t the door was shut "Now this

ge. He kept a grocer's shop. Colchis might be close by for all he knew; out beyond the wall, perhaps, among the old barrels. Children place all they read or hear

beguiled practicality. "It's just

s Colchis, she would have indorsed it with enthusiasm, and followed on like a loyal Argonaut, as she was. But her imag

n't care for the golden fleece; I'm t

re," persisted Mark. "There's two

d Luke contemptuously

it's nothing but the best parlor. But it opens out, right into t

nything might be true of that wonderful best room, after all.

the latch and

hutter," Mark sai

back," suggested

to take her sun-bonnet off yet, an' it'll tak

e light now from

ass handles; right opposite the door by which they had come in, the large, leaning mirror, gilt-garnished with grooved and beaded rim and an eagle and ball-chains over the top,-all this, opening right in from the familiar every-day ki

r been all alone in it before. I think, notwithstan

or, they saw two other little figures. Their own they knew, really, but elsewhere they never saw their own figures entir

k. "There they are, an

can't," said sen

," said Mark. "It's that they're waiting for, you see. The

to wait a hundred

s when th

her imagination kindling, but as under protest. "

cus. "Jest get 'em going, and ma

only jump to the middle round of the carpet, and who could expect that the shadow children should

chairs in the middle, and jump close

raid," sai

the other side of the kitchen, you know. Then the

middle round of the carpet, and then with great leaps came down bodily upon the floor close in front of the large glass

ear what

rt its last fibre, that held the mirror tilting fro

sing weight, and down, flat-face upon the floor, between the children, covering them with fragments of splin

up harsh and sudden against them, making the room small, and all the enchante

same as ever. When a thing like that happens, it tells its own story,

got there in time to hear the house tell it

aid. "Because, then, they could

ouched it,"

ped," s

jumped in the kitchen, or-the-flat-irons had tumbled

re, and we jumpe

h all that slam-bang. Why, it almost upset Lake Ontario! We can tell

and how we jumped," reiterated Lucl

th the wrecks, upon the floor; that is, under water, without ever thinking o

d he laid himself back desperatel

ily, coming in. "They're drownded,-dead, both

nothing but a clutter. But there's an awful thing in the best parlor, and

door, and opened it. She looked i

I do not know whether it is derived from religion or politics. It denotes a vital crisis, either way, and your h

t that's a sign

was rotten," said Ma

ope there mayn't nothin' dreadful happen in this house b

e did it?" asked

you when

t. But we were rolli

h," said Grashy, looking at the two ends sticking up stiff and straight from the top fragment of

'll think of that

and the lookin'-glass, you see,-well, yer ma is a pretty strong-feelin' woman," said Gra

Luclarion, sadly, but i

hy s

est young one, Luke Grapp!" sai

loss and narrowly escaped danger, laid the whole weight of them upon the disobedience to be dealt with, and just as she had said, "You little fool!" out of the very shock of her own di

ach side of the gre

fter Mrs. Grapp's step had died awa

d Mark. "H

mad with

N

up and comfortable. But

e Lord set them, and let them; she found that out afterward, when she was older, and "experienced religion." I think she

cus wanted to go to college, and they undertook that, after the mortgage. It was a stump when Adam Burge wanted her to marry him, and go and live in the long red cottage at Side Hill, and she could not go ti

cent of the farm money; he had had his share long ago; the four thousand dollars were invested for Luke. He did the

od, as far as it went, but it would not keep her idle; neither did she wish to live idle. She learned dress-making; she had taste and knack; she was doi

d to farm work and "all out-doors." It was a "stump" again. That was all she called it; she did not talk

Edward Shiere. And in that household, at