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��ITEMS AND INCIDENTS IN HOPKINTON.
��entire stranger in the place, who ven- tured in reply :
" I don't know anything about Joe Putney's turnip yard, the sweet apple tree, or John Gage's, either."
The simple minded Lois lost her patience in view of what appeared to her as most intolerable ignorance.
"Well, then," said she, "you air one pesky, divilish fool, if you don't know the way to John Gage's !"
Out of this incident a by-word was born. For years afterwards, a person of less than average intelligence was liable to be designated as one "who didn't know the way to John Gage's."
love's labor lost.
In the earlier days, the lower village Baptists used to immerse candidates in the waters of the brook that runs from Smith's pond northerly, through the village, on its way to become a tribu- tary of Dolloff's brook. The spot se- lected for public baptisms was in a glen just north o( the village, on land now owned by Mr. I. W. Fellows. The location, at the time of which we speak, was very romantic and beautiful. The glen was shaded by grand old for- est trees. The brook was reached only by a foot-path winding down a precipitious cliff. In the bosom of the brook was a pool prepared for baptismal purposes, its bottom being paved with white pebbles. On a bap- tismal occasion, the people of the congregation were accustomed to file down the zigzag path, singing appro- priate hymns ; the bottom of the glen reached, the ceremony of baptism was performed with the usual solemnities. The place, the occasion and the form- alities conspired to impress the imagin- ation in a forcible manner.
On a certain occasion of baptism at this romantic spot, the rite was admin- istered to a number of young ladies, who, for the occasion, were arrayed in robes of symbolic white. One of these persons was popularly recognized as the fairest of the fair, and her beauty was not diminished by her snowy dress and luxurient, loose flow- ing hair. That day a young officer of
��the United States army arrived in town, and finding the tide of local popula- tion turned toward the scene of pub- lic baptism, wended his way thither, taking a position of observation on the summit of the cliff overlooking the glen. Sitting there, he saw the lovely maid, the fairest of the fair, plunged beneath the sparkling wave of the pellucid stream. The sight of so much beauty quickened an emotion coe- taneous with human nature and made him feel a vacancy in his being that longed for occupancy by the adorable being before him. Im- perative circumstances, however, pre- vent the immediate consummation of desired plans, and, discharging his per- sonal errands, the young son of Mars returned from whence he came.
The fires of love, once kindled into a vigorous flame, are not readily sub- dued. The young military officer, feeling the yearnings of his heart con- stant toward the new-found attraction, embraced an opportunity of visiting these local scenes again. Years, however, had passed away since his first visit, but time and absence had not oblitera- ted the traces of personal regard that were once wrought in his bosom. As he came and saw once, he determined to come and see again, possibly to conquer. He sought and found these streets again, and asked for the domi- cile of the fair one that had made his spirit glow with an intenser fire. He was pointed to a village house. He approached and knocked at the door. A plain, buxom woman responded. She was clad in a country house-wife dress, and her sleeves were rolled upon her arms. A peculiar odor filled the hall, and, if one had gone there, he would have heard a peculiar sizzling in the kitchen. The truth must be told. The fair maid of days ago stood be- fore the martial visitor. She had be- come plain and stout ; she was the wife ot the village butcher ; her hus- band had just killed a number of hogs, and a grand trial of lard was in pro- gress ; the good-wife was mistress of the performance. Sic transit gloria amoris!
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