The Jamesons

make in a line of conduct. Still I must say that I was not prepared for what Mrs. H. Boardman Jameson did in about a we

he news, coming in one morning befor

alm state of manner. Then she at once relapsed into her own. "My daughter says that she is convinced that the young man is worthy, though he is not socially quite what she might desire, and she does not feel it right to part them if t

stared at me in a frightened way. She said afterward that sh

upon Mr. Browning's own happy marriage; and then she quoted passages; and my daughter became convinced that Robert Browning would have been in favor of the match,-and that settled it. My daughter proves things by Browning almost the same way as people do by Scripture, it seems to me sometimes. I am thankful that it has turned out so," Grandma Cobb went

g's unconscious intercession and its effect upon Mrs.

of poetry to move her," said Lo

she came in and completely opened her heart to us with that almost alarming fra

s for little Harriet. "I feel as if it would kill me if Harry marries that girl-and I am afraid he wi

bout Harriet which were actually dire accus

he has been, everything as neat as wax, if I do say it, and his victuals always cooked nice, and ready when he wanted them, marrying a girl like that. I can't and I won't have it. It's all very well now, he's captivated by a pretty face; but wait a little, and he'll find out there's something else. He'll find out there's comfort to be considered as well as love. And she don't even k

decision. I suggested mildly that the girl had never been taught, and had always had so much money that she w

and improved her own daughter, so she could walk in the way Providence has set for a woman without disgracing herself. But I am looking at her as she is, without any questio

rather timid, Caroline was so fierce-if

Harry could see her every day, and perhaps after all find out that it would not amount to anything. I'd rather try to cure drink than make a good housewife of a girl wh

, when she had taken her leave after what seemed to us must have been a

y on shares with his father, and able to support a wife. I don't believe he is going to stop, now the

st suit, carrying a cane, which he swung with the assured ai

s there is no more secret strolling in my grov

and I saw that there was something which

s it?"

be her mother wouldn't be willing, and maybe she wouldn't be willing herself-but I was thinking that you were

aid I at once,-"i

s much as she could about keeping a house nice before she had one of her own, and Harriet blushed as red as a rose and thanked me, and arranged to come for her first lesson the very next morning. I got a large gingham apron for her, and we began. I gave he

enuously engaged in uprooting poison-ivy vines, which grew thickly along the walls everywhere in the village. I must say

ss. Poison-ivy is a staunch and persistent thing, and more than a match for Mrs. Jameson. She suffered herself somewhat in the conflict, and went about for some time with her

n. All at once she discovered what none of the rest of us had thought of-I suppose we must have been lacking in p

nth day of July. She had just found it out in an old book which h

nnial, of course," sa

and exhibits of the products of the whole world in our fields and cow-pastures, floated thro

a vaguely of Mrs. Jameson, as if a c

take the oldest house in town," said she promptly. "I think that it is nearly as old as the village, and we wil

dest house is the S

living there," sai

yed our old-fashioned highboy, of which we are very proud, and an old-fashioned table which becomes a chair when properl

her things are to be moved in," suggested Louisa timidly; but Mrs.

s," she went on to say, "and Miss Clark has a mahogany table." Mrs. Jameson went on calmly enumerating articles of old-fashioned

while all this is going on," remarked Louisa in her

. Jameson; and Louisa and I fairly gasped when we reflec

a when Mrs. Jameson had gone hurrying down the street to impart her scheme to others;

ow whether Mrs. H. Boardman Jameson had really any hypnotic influence over us, or whether we had a desire for the celebration, but the whole village marshal

w was the one who displayed the greatest meekness under provocation. The whole affair must have seemed revolutionary to her. She was a quiet, delicate little woman, no longer young. She did not go out much, not even to the sewing circle or the literary society, and seemed as fond of her home as an animal of its shell-as if it were a part of her. Old as her house was, she had it fitted up in a modern, and, to our village ideas, a very pretty fashion. Emily was quite well-to-do. Th

spun linen trimmed with hand-knitted lace. Emily's nice Marseilles counterpanes were laid aside for the old blue-and-white ones which our grandmothers spun and wove, and her fine oil paintings gave way to old engravings of Webster death-bed scenes and portraits of the Presidents, and s

n the verge of uncomplaining tears, "but I don't quite feel competent to undertake it now. It looks to me as if the kettles might be hard to lift." Emily

en she came out of it; but she uttered no word of complaint, not even when they took down her marble slabs and exposed the yawning mouths of the old fireplaces again. All

terest in the village. Of course, everybody knows Elijah M. Mills. He was to make a speech. Mrs. Lucy Beers Wright, whose aunt on her father's side, Miss Jane Beers, used to live in Linnville before she died, was to come and read some selections from her own works. Mrs. Lucy Beers Wright writes quite celebrated stories, a

rdman Jameson he neither came nor wrote a letter. The Governor of the State did not come, but he wrote a very handsome letter, expressing the most heartfelt disappointment that he was unable to be present on such an occasion; and we all felt very sorry for him when we heard it read. Mrs. Sim White said that a governor's life must be a hard one, he

she left mostly to the rest of us, though she did break over in one instance to our sorrow. We made pound-cake, and cupcake, and Indian puddings, and pies, and we baked beans enough for a standing army. Of course, the dinner was to be after the fashion of one of a hundred years ago. The old oven in the Shaw kitchen was to be heated, and Indian puddin

g with the procession. We were to assemble at the old Shaw house at half-past twelve; the dinner was to be at half-past one, after an hour of social intercourse which would afford people an opportunity of viewing the house, and a f

was one of us when we saw her driving past in the procession. We thought it exceedingly appropriate that the Jamesons-Mr. Jameson had come on from New York for the occasion-should ride in the procession with the minister and the lawyer in a barouche from Grover. Barouches seemed that day to be illustrative of extremest progress in carriages, in contrast with the old Linnville and Wardville stage-coaches, and the old chaise and do

ible short costume. There was a good deal of jet about the waist, and her bonnet was all made of jet, with a beautiful tuft of pink r

son. We were not as proud of him, since all that he had done which we knew of was to lose all his money and have his

was very warm in the kitchen, too, for Mrs. Jameson had herself started the hearth fire in order to exemplify to the utmost the old custom. The kettles on the crane were all steaming. Flora Clark said it was nonsense to have a hearth-fire on such a hot day because our grandmothers were obliged to, but she was in the minority. Most of the ladies were inclined to follow Mrs. Jameson's lead unquestionably on that occasion. They even exclaimed admiringly over two chicken pies which she brought, and which I must say had a singular appearance. The pastry looked very hard and of a curious leaden color. Mrs. Jameson said that she made them herself out of whole wheat, without shortening, and she evidently

every good housewife knows, is essential, and there were dire reports of sufferings in consequence. The village doctor, after his precarious drive in the ancient sulky, had a night of toil. Caleb-commonly called Kellup-Bates, and his son Thomas, were the principal sufferers, they being notoriou

dinner was a very great success, and Flora Clark said to me that if people a hundred years ago ate those hearty, nourishing victuals as these people did, sh

te of the Linnville church a hundred years ago, and contrasted those days of fireless meeting-houses with the comforts of the sanctuary at the present time. He also had a long list of statistics. I began at last to feel a little uneasy lest he might read his poem, and so rob the guests who were to speak of their quotas of time. Louisa said she thought he was intending to, but she saw Mrs. Jameso

did have a great many letters from people who we were surprised to hear had ever heard of us, and they were very interesting. Still it did take time to read them; and after she had finished them all, Mrs. Jameson commenced to speak on her own account. She had some notes which she consulted unobtrusively from time to time. She dwelt mainly upon the vast improvement for the better in our condition during the last hundred years. She mentioned in this connection Robert Browning, the benefit of whose teaching was denied our ancestors of a hundred years ago. She also mentio

indignation and discomfiture among us, and I dare say among the guests themselves. Mrs. Lucy Beers Wright was particularly haughty, even to Mrs. Sim White, who did her best to express her regret without blaming Mrs. Jameson. As for Elijah M. Mills, Louisa said she heard him say something which she would not repeat, when he w

rriet Jameson was all in a blaze. She wore a white muslin dress, and somehow it had caught-I suppose from a spark; she had been sitting near the hearth, though we had thought the fire was out. Harry Liscom made one spring for her when he saw what had happened; but he had not been very near her, and a woman was before him. She caught

ry's marrying Harriet-cuddling the girl in her motherly arms, the sleeves of her best black grenadine being all scorched, too, and telling her that she must not be frightened, the fire was all out, and calling her my dear child, and kissing her. I, for one, never knew that Caroline Liscom could display so m

wished to do the comforting and cuddling himself; but she would not have it. "Poor child! poor

und the other woman who had saved her daughter. "God bless you! Oh, God bless you!" she said; then her voice broke and she sobbed out loud. I think a good many of us joined her. As for Carol

nervous shock, and was trembling like a leaf, her cheeks white and her eyes big with terror. Caroline Liscom and her mother came too, and Caroline concealed her burns until Harriet's we

for her part, she felt as if she had gone through enough that day without poetry. The poem was delivered by special request at our next sewing circle, but I think the minister was alw

eir owners, which, of course, could not be done that day, nor for many days to come. I think I never worked harder in my life than I did setting things to rights after

, and Harriet was running over to Caroline's house to take less

the most notable housekeepers in the village for her age. She and her husband live with Caroline Liscom, and Louisa says sometimes that

very much unless they can do something for them,

y they had as soon have him come in and sit a while and talk, as a girl. As for Mrs. Jameson, she still tries to improve us at times, not always with our full concurrence, and her ways are still not altogether our ways, provoking mirth, or calling for charity. Yet I must say we have nowadays a better understa

E