Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 8.djvu/265

A New England Village Quilting Party in the Olden Times. 239 stead of the fork is used in eating. The tea is taken from the china saucers. A glass of currant wine stands between the minister's and the teacher's plates, and all the tongues are glibly running.

At length, Aunt Tabitha turns her tea-cup over, carefully inspects the order or disorder of the tea grounds, and then cries out:

"Who will have her fortune told?"

"I, I, I," they all vociferate; for at that period the belief was common that some mysterious link exists between the settlings in a teacup and the coming events of life. Miss Mansfield presents her cup and says:

"Now, Tabitha, be sure and tell me true!"

The prophetess, adjusting her silver-bowed spectacles and examining every particle of the black sediment, exclaims, while every tongue, except her own, is silent and every ear intent, "You, Miss Molly Mansfield, as your cup most clearly indicates, are to become a member of Mr. Baxter's Church, and one of his most earnest workers. From these grounds, also, I perceive that you are not to change your name and state and residence. I see moreover, in the distance, this crooked line of dots declares it, a smart young gentleman approaching thoughtfully. In one hand he holds a ferrule, and a spelling-book in the other. Why do you blush so, Molly? He surely comes; the children do him reverence, and you do him still more. Keep still, Molly, till I see the meaning of this other little line. O, now I have it, I can just perceive you, and I know it's you, in a white muslin dress walking arm in arm with this young gentleman towards the parsonage. I see you plainly going through a certain ceremony. I see you then ascend the Meeting House Hill together and enter a large white house; and from this cluster of grounds above the rest, I see you take the ferrule from his hand to govern him, and the spelling- book to teach the children."

"And whom," enquires McAdams, in his confusion, "does that man look like?"

"Like you, yourself," responds Aunt Tabitha.

A roar of laughter follows, and the minister laughs the loudest; for like Dr. Franklin, he believes in early marriages. The tea is finished, the party breaks up in the best of spirits, Mr. Hezekiah McAdams ventures home with Molly Mansfield; they are in due season published by the Town Clerk viva voce in the church, and married by the minister as the prophetess had predicted. For once, her tea grounds told the truth, for it was "a fixed fact" before, and with all such matters this village fortune-teller took much pains to acquaint herself.

Mr. Baxter remained a while at Mrs. Benson's after the quilters had departed, when she, good woman, wisely or unwisely, I shall not pretend to say, acquainted him with the remarks the party had made concerning him. How he took the information is not stated; but he shortly afterwards preached his memorable sermon on "Total Depravity," which almost every one of his hearers applied to his next-door neighbor instead of to himself. But I am very glad to say a few did not. Mr. Hezekiah McAdams became a noted writer of school text-books; Mrs. Rugby sent her son Caleb to college, and he attained distinction as a lawyer. Miss Pinchbeck grew more charitable as she advanced in life, and left a legacy to the Church; Mrs. Rackett learned to control her tongue and temper; Miss Hannah Blair became the daughter-in-law of Mrs. Benson.