Part 2 (1/2)

”And as his verdict?”

”If you ht 'twas--awful shaller”

Doctor Ben's Goffstown Muster was a quicker tereat occasion of the annualcolts hardly broken; irls and their beaux sitting in the best wagon holding hands and staring about (as Warner said to ”); the booths for sale of gingerbread, peanuts, cider, candies, and popcorn; thesteed All was exciteed pair, seely skeletons, so bony and ere they, were seen tottering toward the fence, where they at last stopped They had coraveyard The o back; this is not the general resurrection, it is only the Goffstown Muster”

Doctor Ben Crosby was one of the most admirable mimics ever known and without a suspicion of ill-nature So another acquaintance, who had just left, so perfectly that the gravest and stiffest were in danger of hysterics This power his daughter inherited

John Lord, the historical lecturer, was always a ”beacon light” (which was the naave his lectures when published) as he discussed the subjects and persons he took for themes before immense audiences everywhere His conversation was also intensely interesting He was a social lion and a favourite guest His lectures have still a large annual sale--no one who once knew hiet him or them It was true that he made nine independent and distinct motions sioing back to his roo He stopped, opened it, showing a bottle of Scotch whiskey, and explained ”I a in on a lecture on Moses” There was a certain si, broken by a fall from a horse, he offered prayer in the old church And unable to use his aryrations that he in some way drifted around until when he said ”Amen”

his face fronted the ashed wall back of his pulpit He turned to thein a very audible whisper, ”Do you think anybody noticed it?”

He was so genuinely hospitable that when a friend suddenly accepted his ”come up any time” invitation, he found no one at ho a chicken Soon one was let out, but she evaded her pursuers ”You shoo, and I'll catch,” cried the kind host, but shrank back as the fowl caot teeth?” At last they conquered, plucked, and cooked her for a somewhat tardy meal, with some potatoes clawed up in the potato field Once, when very absent-minded, at a hotel table in a country tavern, the waitress was astonished to watch hirease his boots

Doctor John Ordronaux, Professor of Medical Jurisprudence at Dartes and medical schools, was another erudite scholar, who e, his words were so unusual and his vocabulary so full that a wag once advertised on the bulletin board on the door of Dartmouth Hall, ”Five hundred new adjectives by John Ordronaux”

He was haunted by synony, sofor attention He was a confirular habits; wanted his bed to be left to air the entire day, he to make it himself at precisely 530 PM, or as near as possible His as peculiar, with knees stiffly bent out and elbows crooked as if to repel all feressive porcupine” as so was always the sa about 930 Rallied about his methodical habits, he was apt to ed themselves in earthly pleasures, all of whoreat admirer of my mother for her loveliness and kind interest in the students; after her death he was a noble aid toless fla ality Once after giving me a drive, he kindly said, as he helped me out, ”I have quite enjoyed your cheerful prattle” Fact was, he had y I had no chance to say one word He had his oay of gainingwith butchers Did you ever know one that was anae time? From them and the ani blood, he felt that surely a radiant ht he was real democratic and a pleasant spoken ular ee-coach by the side of a farht like a et you one” So fornified, and fastidious was he that this seems improbable, but I quote his own account

Doctor Ordronaux visited atthere from overwork After his departure, uncle received a letter fro, ”Guess this is meant for you” I quote proudly:

I rejoice to have been permitted to enjoy so much of Miss Sanborn's society, and to discover what I never before fully appreciated, that beneath the scintillations of a brilliant intellect she hides a vigorous and analytic understanding, and when age shall have somewhat tempered her emotional susceptibilities she will shi+ne with the steady light of a planet, reaching her perihelion and taking a permanent place in the fir like a Johnsonian epitaph, but wasn't it great?

I visited his adoptedIsland, and they tookspot for a poet's hoorous health,to his library he took down an early edition of his _Thanatopsis_, pointing out the nineteen lines written so on the wall such as ”As thy days so shall thy strength be” I ventured to ask how he preserved such vitality, and he said, ”I owe a great deal to daily air baths and the flesh brush, plenty of outdoor air and open fireplaces” What an i beard; his eyebrows looked as if snow had fallen on thehtfully informal ”What does your name mean?” he inquired, and I had to say, ”I do not know, it has changed so often,” and asked, ”What is the origin of yours?” ”Briant--brilliant, of course” He told the butler to close the door behindthis couplet:

When the wind strikes you through a hole, Goe, if not dialect, in the world He loved every inch of his country ho, flowers, the water-view and fish-pond, fond of long walks, and preferred the simple life In his rooms were many souvenirs of early travel His walls were covered with the finest engravings and paintings fro to be i authors and would-be poets He said: ”People expect too ether too much” That Sunday was his last before his address on Mazzini in Central Park He finished with the hot sun over his head, and walking across the park to the house of Grant Wilson, he fell down faint and hopelessly ill on the doorstep He never rallied, and after thirteen days the end ca to the old, who are selfishly urged to do hard tasks, that they hty-four when killed by over-exertion, with a mind as wonderful as ever

I will now recount the conditions when Ezekiel Webster and his second wife took their wedding trip in a ”one hoss shay” to the White Mountains in 1826

Grandma lived to be ninety-six, with her ave me this story of their experiences at that time My mother told me she knew of randfather's death, but she said ”she would rather be theof Ezekiel Webster, than the wife of any otheris her own description

The only house near the Crawford Notch was the Willey House, in which the fa A week before a slide had come down by the side of the house and obstructed the road Mr

Willey and twothe carriage over the debris

They described the terrors of the night of the slide The rain was pouring in torrents, the soil began to slide fro with it trees, boulders, and all in its way; the crashi+ng and thundering were terrible Three weeks later the entire fae, were overtaken by a second slide and all buried

The notch was then as nature made it; no steam whistle or car clatter had intruded upon its solitude The first h was a man in the distance He proved to be Ethan Crawford, who kept the only house of entertain by its tail He had killed the creature and was taking it home as a trophy He was a stalwartthe mountains, and had beco of his own home He said that only a few days before he had passed a bear drinking at a spring He led the way to his house, a common farmhouse without paint, or carpet, or cushi+oned seat The landlady was spinning wool in the kitchen

Mr Crawford supplied the table when he could by his gun or fishi+ng-rod; otherwise the fare was re When asked for mustard for the salt meat, they said they had none, at least in the house, but they had so-rooirl in attendance was requested by Mr

Webster, with i its companion in, for it seemed lonely She stood in utter confusion for afowl and disappeared

When Mr Crawford was asked if ladies ever went up Mount Washi+ngton, he said two had been up, and he hoped never to see another trying it, for the last one he brought down on his shoulders, or she would have never got down alive