ears old, who were the delight
and pride of their parents. "Bub," or "Bubby," as boys are familiarly
called in the United States, could already mount a horse, call in the
pigs, and sing Yankee Doodle as well, his father declared, as he could
himself; while "Sissy" nursed her rag-doll, and lulled it to sleep, in
her tiny rocking-chair, with as much tenderness and patience as a larger
woman. They were wonderful children! Uncle John said.

The kind and gentle Annie had grown up, beloved by all who knew her, and
Jem Watson had often thought what a good wife she would make, and what a
happy house that would be of which she was mistress, before he summoned
courage to ask her to be his. When she consented, he believed himself
the most fortunate man in Ohio. But she would not leave her mother quite
alone, with her many household cares, and therefore it was determined
that though the marriage should take place in the autumn, she should not
move to Jem's house until George, who had taken his elder brother's
place in helping his father, should be old enough to bring home a wife
to undertake his sister's duties. Jem, meanwhile was to cultivate and
improve the eighty-acre lot his father had purchased for him within six
miles of Painted Posts, a place which was rapidly increasing, and
already offered a profitable market to the neighboring farmers, more
especially as a railway now passed within two miles.

We shall have mentioned all our old friends when we add that the baby
Willy had become just such another thoughtless daring boy as Tom had
been at his age, and that Dick Watson was established in Cincinnati, now
called the "Queen of the West," as a pork merchant, and was getting rich
very fast.

The maize, or Indian corn, had attained its ripest hue, and been plucked
from the dry stems, which had been deprived of their leaves as soon as
the ear was fully formed, that nothing might screen the sun's hottest
rays from the grain, and the golden-colored pumpkins which had been
planted between the rows, that no land might be wasted, even left to
ripen alone amid the withering corn-stalks. The neighbors from far and
near had visited each other's houses in turn, for the "Husking frolic,"
when all joined to strip from the ear the long leaves in which it was
wrapped, and which were to be stacked as fodder for the sheep and
cattle. The apples had been sliced and dried in the sun, and then strung
and suspended in festoons from the kitchen cei