The old sign board "Three Miles to Mason's Corner" was still there,
but how changed the other conditions. No consumptive uncle in the
Poor House, no philosophical Uncle Ike living in a chicken coop, no
inquisitive Mrs. Putnam, no mysterious Lindy, no battle royal with
the music teacher, no town meeting to engineer, no grocery store to
buy, no Deacon's daughter to go driving with, no singing school, no
surprise party, no blind girl to comfort and aid--and finally marry.
There were none of the incidents that had made his father's life at
Mason's Corner so exciting and interesting. Now, there was only a
little boy riding in a red wagon with yellow wheels, inhaling the
pure air and sweetness of the wild flowers, listening to the songs of
birds, and wishing that Uncle Hiram would make the horse go faster.
It is safe to leave him with his father's friends, for surely his
lines had fallen in a pleasant place.
CHAPTER XVIII
AN OLD STRIFE RENEWED
It was February and the air was stinging cold. It was one of those
nights such as Lowell wrote about in "The Courtin'."
"God makes sech nights, all white an' still
Fur'z you can look or listen,
Moonshine an' snow on field an' hill,
All silence an' all glisten."
In the store of the Strout and Maxwell Company quite a number of the
town's people were gathered about the big air-tight stove which was
kept stuffed full of wood by willing hands and from which came great
waves of almost scorching heat.
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