Page:New Peterson magazine 1859 Vol. XXXV.pdf/154

 GILLIAN.

149

“I‘m sure of that. It’s just what I was hoping to hear. It’s so pleasant to look up to one’s own parents. Well——”

Gillian folded both her white hands over the farmer’s knee, and looked up to him with her eyes brimful of teader agitation.

“Well!”

“Sarah was a good deal younger than I or than her sister Hetty; but neither on us could hold a candle to her. When she sot her mind on a thing, she would have her own way, and always got it in the end, There was only three of us, and she, being the youngest, was the pet of the whole family, till like pets in general she took the lead.”

“Of course,” said Gillian, laughing softly. “Why not? .I dare say she was. just the sort of person to lead off with a grace. Well, you spoiled her among you, and of course she paid you for it: nothing can be more natural.”

“I dare say, gal—I dare say it all came in the natral course of things; but she was a down- right good-natured creature after all, and loved us, I’m sure of that.”

“Of eourse she did: who could help it? Why, uncle Daniel, it isu’tten hours since I saw you on that great, fat, darling old horse, and I love you dearly already; certainly she loved you.”

“Yes, yes, I don’t doubt it though; to own the truth, I never could quite understand our Sarah. She was like an April day; you couldn’t tell whether it would be storm, or sunshine, or a dull, heavy rain, twenty-four hours together! She was a great reader, and took up painting flowers and writing poetry, and all sorts of fol- de-rol accomplishments, naturally as a bird takes to fruit. I declare it almost took my breath sometimes to find out all she knew. Your aunt Hetty was considered a girl of pretty good larn- ing, but she had to study hard for the know- ledge; while Sarah seemed to pick up her lessons on the wing: but the two gals loved each other dearly. I raly believe Hetty would have died for her sister any day; but as for Sarah, she was capable of something more than that, she used to pet and protect Hetty in any little difficulty, as if she had been the oldest. She had to do this a good deal, one time or another, for your grand- father was a stern, old man, and kept a tight rein on his family, especially the gals.

“We lived on the old place here, and might have got along in the world, but the old man endorsed for one of his neighbors, and when called on to pay up, he was obliged to mortgage the homestead, and that gave us all the first hard start down hill.

“Father was a proud man, and looked upon debt as a disgrace, After this trouble came on, she was more severe and rigid in all his notions than ever; this made everything gloomy and un- comfortable for the gals, and even Sarah began to feel down-hearted at times. The old man used to say it wasn’t so much the money that troubled him, as the feeling that his fellow men was ready to take advantage at every step on the highway of life. His confidence in mankind was shook, and that is a terrible misfortune with $a man like your grandsire, I can tell you. Your $ grandfather raised the money on his place down in York, from a goung fellow that had more than he knew what to do with. That led to the rich man’s coming up into these parts to look at the property. His name was Bentley.”

‘‘What? my father?” cried Gillian, deeply interested.

“‘No, but your father’s cousin, a handsome, genteel young feller as you ever sot eyes on. He’d just come of age, and felt his oats, I can tell you. Of course your grandfather invited the young chap to put up at the homestead, that was now a’most as good as his own property, It was winter time when he came up, and such sleighing; you don’t find anything like it now- a-days, snow three feet deep on the turnpike, and tread down as hard as a miser’s feelings. We had two spans of horses in the barn that would match anything this side of the river; and a great, double-seated sleigh, not to mention a pony and a cutter that skimmed the snow like a bird flying. Besides all this, it was mighty comfortable in-doors. Grandma was great on buckwheat-cakes, and we had lots of maple molasses; and as for her mince-pies, they beat everything.

‘With all this the homestead wasn’t a disagreeable place to stay in. The gals did their part, too, and kept a bright hickory fire in the out-room there in the wing, which was enough of itself to light up the red and green stripes of the home-made carpet, and made the tall, brass andirons glitter like gold on the hearth.

“It raly was a purty sight in the evening, when the gals came down stairs sleeked up like a couple of new pins: Hetty, with her brown hair twisted up behind, and shining like velvet; and Sarah, with her hair in soft, thick curls, that seemed to catch the firelight the minute she came in. Oh, she was a bright, happy cretur— was sister Sarah in those days; springy as a willow branch, and rosy as an apple tree in bloom. I remember that winter she wore a blue merino dress that fitted close up to her neck, with sleeves tight te her arms, which sloped down beautifully to her wrists. Little ruffles—