Taking It For Granted.

his pipe and listened . It Avas the first time I eA er alloAved anyone to smoke in my house , but I had nothing to say noAv . I eA en filled his pipe and lighted it for ham . And then he told the story of his life , which had been full of strange and interesting adventures . HeAvas evidently

a man Avho did not read much and AVIIO could not have Avritten Avell , but he could talk : not always grammatically , perhaps , but always Avith force and fascination . It seemed that years and y ears ago , his father and my mother ' s father lived hi a

toAvn in the valley of the Kennebec . My mother ' s father Avas a large farmer and Mr . Averill ' s father Avas a very small farmer Avith a very large family . So his yoimgest son , Sam , came to w ork for my grandfather . My mother and my aunt Augusta

were young girls—they Avere tAvins , and I suppose by the Avay they look now that they must have been pretty then . My mother Avas early engaged and married to my father ; but there Avas Augusta , and there Avas Sam ; and Avhere one Avas you might usually find the other near at hand .

Sam never said anything ; he AA as not of a demonstrative kind , but he knew how he felt and he supposed Augusta kneAv too . So the years budded and blossomed and brought forth fruit , until at last Sam Avent doAvn to Connecticut to take charge of a

saAv mill for an imcle of his . He AAi-ote to Aunt Augusta and Aunt Augusta AA rote to him . ; and UOAV and then he came to Maine on business , always going to my grandfather ' s before he Avent home , and carrying himself towards Augusta like an accepted lover .

After a feAv years he found himself possessed of tAvelve thousand dollars , and immediately Avent to Avork to spend it . He Avent abroad , to England and Rome and E gypt and Paris and Germany and SAveden and Russia and everyAvhere . When he came home at ksfc it Avas with

only fifty dollars in his pocket . So next he Avent out among the copper mines of Lake Superior , and in time Avas again possessed of tAA'elve thousand dollars .

'NOAV I will come home and marry Augusta , and settle doAvn , " said he to himself . But he didn't say it to anybodyelse . It neA er occurred to him that Avas necessary . Meantime my Aunt Augusta had not stood like a rose in a pot , Avaiting for the

gardener to come and pick it . She cast out her roots and threAV up her branches and bloomed as though it Avas enough to fulfill the laws of being and beauty for their OAvn sakes . In that simple neighbourhood Avork Avas

supposed to be the chief end of everybody . So Aunt Augusta learned vest-making , and then she Avent to Coos , where her brother Nathan lived , and set up for herself . Coos was a little crumb of a torvn in those clays ; but it held up its head and

had its stores and its mills , and its shops , and its great Avhite meeting-house on a hill , Avith galleries on three sides and square peAA's and a high box pulpit . The first Sunday after Aunt Augusta Avent thereshe climbed the lullof course

, , , and Avent in the front peAV Avith Uncle Nathan and his Avife . She Avas fashionably dressed in a black crape gOAA'n , a scarlet shaAvl and a Avhite silk bonnet Avith pink

roses inside . Her cheeks AA ere as pink as her roses , and her eyes Avere as black as her gOAvn . There Avas no need that Mr . Keelei should point her out to the yormg men , but he took the pahis to do it . Mr . Keeler the ministerAvas a littlelank manas

, , , plain and gray as a dor-bug , and so afraid of the pomps and vanities that he Avouldn't wear buttons on his coat . No sooner had his eyes fallen on Aunt Augusta , settling herself in the front peAV like a variegated tulip , than he dropped the subject he had

started upon for his sermon , and began to preach against conformity to the Avorlcl . He Avas a sincere , earnest man , and he preached Avith all his might , emphasizing and illustrating his Avords by pointing Avith his blunt finger at the scarlet shaAvl and pink roses . So if anybody had neglected to look at them before , they looked then . Anion « those Avho were obedient to the

ministerial forefinger Avas Abner Stanton , the village blacksmith . Abner Stanton ' s heart Avas a good deal like his iron—not easily melted—but Avhen it once had been hammered into a shape , there it Avas , fixed and stedfast . And today Aunt Augusta ' s eyes Avent through it

like red-hot arrows as he peered around at her from behind one of the pillars in the gallery . The next day he came to get a vest made . The day after he came to bring the buttons for it ; and the day after that he