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"The creature will eat us out of house and home," said grand'ther one day, looking at me, for him good-humoredly. "Well, don't shoot me, as you shot the pigeons." "Pah, have pigeons a soul?" In February the weather softened, and a great revival broke out. It was the dullest time of the year in Barmouth.
Aunt Mercy continued her preparations for tea, and when it was ready, went to the foot of the stairs, and called, "Supper." Grand'ther came down immediately followed by two tall, cadaverous women, Ruth and Sally Aikin, tailoresses, who sewed for him spring and fall. Living several miles from Barmouth, they stayed through the week, going home on Saturday night, to return on Monday morning.
Caroline had already gone home, so Aunt Mercy had nothing cheery but her plants and her snuff; for she had lately contracted the habit of snuff-taking but very privately. "Train her well, Locke; she is skittish," said grand'ther as we got into the chaise to go home. "Grand'ther, if I am ever rich enough to own a peaked-roof pig-sty, will you come and see me?" "Away with you."
"There was reason in it; and what is better, there was natur'! Come, sit ye down beside me, lad; sit ye down, and tell me of what your grand'ther used to speak, when his mind dwelt on the wonders of the wilderness."
I perceived that when she sewed between meetings her work was worse done than ever; but grand'ther made no mention of it. I went with Aunt Mercy to meetings three times a day, and employed myself in scanning the countenances around me, curious to discover the first symptoms of Conviction.
"No more than the baby here did." "I shall have faith, though, that it will be well with you, because you have had the blessing of so good a man as your grand'ther." "But I never heard a word of grand'ther's prayers. Do you remember his voice?" A smile crept into her blue eye, as she said: "My hearing him, or not, would make no difference, since God could hear and answer."
November passed, with its Thanksgiving the sole day of all the year which grand'ther celebrated, by buying a goose for dinner, which goose was stewed with rye dumplings, that slid over my plate like glass balls. Sally and Ruth betook themselves to their farm, and hybernated. December came, and with it a young woman named Caroline, to learn the tailor's trade.
Something must be done a fast day appointed, or especial prayer-meetings held. This was on Saturday; the next day the ceremony of the Lord's Supper would take place, and grand'ther recommended that the minister should be asked to suggest something to the church which might remove it from its hardness. "Are the vessels scoured, Mercy?" he asked, after the deacons had gone. "I have no sand."
As they took their accustomed seats at the table, I thought they had swallowed the interval of time which had gone by since they left, so precisely the same was the moment of their leaving and that of their coming back. I knew grand'ther no better than when I saw him first. He was sociable to those who visited the house, but never with those abiding in his family.
Put hands upon this short and withered grass where we stand, and lay bare the 'arth." "Would you think to deprive the fire of its victims in this childish manner?" exclaimed Middleton. A faint but solemn smile passed over the features of the old man, as he answered "Your grand'ther would have said, that when the enemy was nigh, a soldier could do no better than to obey."
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