Page:Peterson's Magazine 1842, Volume I.pdf/333

88

she had fainted. This delay gave sufficient time for the whole group to be scanned, criticised and admired by the lookers on. Even worthy Mr. Lovegood was long in arranging his hymn-book and bible satisfactorily that morning. The prayers, hymns and sermon might all have been omitted, for the " English family" was a text which had sufficient division naturally arising from the subject, to engross the attention of all. We never heard of any improvement made of the subject, except that of old aunt Betty Larkin's, who thought " it was as good as a sarment on Vanity to see all them rattle-traps and fol-de-rols the English folks wore."

Before the next Sabbath they were safely fixed in their own house, and had received the welcomes of most of their townsmen and townswomen personally. Mrs. Smithe was ascertained to be a very genteel lady—true, she was dressed in a calico short gown and maroon colored flannel petticoat, when Mrs. Burbanks called, but it must be English full dress, for at the same time she had a velvet turban, trimmed with yellow lace upon her head-her little grey curls peeping out from its front and sides, greatly augmenting the effect of her blowsy face, and little inquisitive nose ! The Miss Smithes' were pronounced " lovely" by the ladies, and "slick" by the men- social, pleasant girls they were, but models of would-be fine ladies- slouching and careless in their morning attire, with soiled caps covering multitudes of little imprisoned curls-in the afternoon be-ruffled and be-curled ready for visitors. Miss Harriet, the eldest, was sentimental and poetical-she went into raptures over the wild, mountainous scenery of Vermont, and in the next breath spoke of her dear native land, and early friends. Miss Caroline was more desirous of pleasing, and if the truth must be told, had set her heart too firmly upon making a settlement in the new country to remember much of that of her birth- she was the more agreeable of the two. Young Mr. Smithe was never seen, and might more often be found in the kitchen than parlor, still more often in the stable than either. The old gentleman was jolly and friendly as any one could desire, had a word for every body, patronised all the merchants and grocers- bought all the spare stock of the farmers without asking the prices until it was his-and all their extra corn and potatoes. From the old man to the little girl, whom Miss Prim extolled as a pattern of perfection, and asserted boldly that 66 she was the sweetest child- English hair did curl so lovely"-the English family were the fashion. The editor of the "Laurelville Green Mountain Banner" felicitated himself and his readers in a congratulatory paragraph upon the arrival of distinguished strangers from the Motherland-the merchants had British calicoes, and cottons, and Manchester and Birmingham sheetings and shirtings upon their counters. Mr. Lovegood preached a

sermon apologising for the coming over of the Puritans, and the American struggle for liberty. School- master Jones delivered a lecture before the " young men's and women's lyceum," on England and her prospects. The shoe-maker, Mr. Pegg, advertised " English ties and buskins for ladies." Shaver, the barber, who eked out his income by appropriating one window of his little shop on the corner to the exhibition of confectionary, tapes, and black-ball for sale, went to the expense of a sheet of paste-board to make a special sign for " English walnuts." The Harmony Band learned to play " God save the King." The " Female Education Society" was changed in name and object—and was known as "the society for the amelioration of the condition of factory children in Great Britain." The English or rather Smithe mode of dress was adopted generally. Turkies and chickens became "pheasants," and poultry yards " preserves." H's went out of fashion in the right places, and were added where they did not belong -'ot ' am and heggs became a fashionable dish to speak of as it gave one an opportunity of practising the (h !) out. Under the Smithe dynasty, Holladay farm became Smithe Park- its stone walls and root fences were demolished—the rows of maples were cut down, and little clumps of oak and elm substituted-the straight Iwalk to the front door was made to wind and double itself—the little pond, where the cows had been watered for years, was converted into an ornamented lake, and called by Miss Harriet " Ulstan water"-the grinning knocker, which in the Holladay times had lost its fearful expression in its lustre, was taken down, and a bell pull substituted. What the Smithe's termed their " coat of h-arms" was placed over the front-door-a picture of two nondescript animals facing each other-some crooked lines and one straight one-it passed the comprehension of the inhabitants of Laurelville, nor was it made more clear by John Brown's kindly but condescending explanation that it was " a couchant and a rampant." Within doors as many alterations had been made before the spring-English carpets, English chairs and tables, an English sofa, and the wonder of the inhabitants of Laurelville, an English piano, for the Miss Smithes' were musical, were its furniture- English prints, books, and some little china toys, were its ornaments. The beautiful month of May brought with it one more change-the hiring of a young man to preach (in the room, made vacant by the Baptists building a new church or barn, ) and to read prayers with a black silk gown and white bands on-this was effected by the united exertions of Mr. Smithe and John Brown's eloquence. The attraction proved sufficient to collect a comfortably large congregation-for the girls went to see the young and handsome minister, and the young men went to see the girls.

All these changes, we repeat, had not been made in a