. Recollections of Auton House . dle finger of one hand stretched across theother was the marvel of marvels. Whenever afterwards we prac-ticed the piano on thenursery tables and baby-chairs, this cross-handmanoeuvre was the ob-ject we all tried to Auton was a Lady Bountiful in theold-fashioned sense. Shelived at an epoch whenhospitality was a Christian virtue, and a stranger became a memberin a mans own household. Full measure, heaped up and runningover, was the invisible legend engraven over her blessed heart, andshe turned her face from no poor man at the door. All the col-ored
. Recollections of Auton House . dle finger of one hand stretched across theother was the marvel of marvels. Whenever afterwards we prac-ticed the piano on thenursery tables and baby-chairs, this cross-handmanoeuvre was the ob-ject we all tried to Auton was a Lady Bountiful in theold-fashioned sense. Shelived at an epoch whenhospitality was a Christian virtue, and a stranger became a memberin a mans own household. Full measure, heaped up and runningover, was the invisible legend engraven over her blessed heart, andshe turned her face from no poor man at the door. All the col-ored people squatted to her in the street, and Minty Weeks, ZipBrinturns wife, Yilette Jackson and Aunty -, in mob caps,checked aprons, silver-bowed spectacles, and big india-rubber shoes,would wend their noiseless way through the upper entry to herchamber-door, to pour into her patient and sympathetic ear theirworn-out tales of rheumatiz and gone feelins. These groan-ings were sure to be relieved by potions of spirits, and remnants. OUR MOTHER AUTON. 69 of old flannel, dealt out to them from that inexhaustible store,always on hand, somewhere in the baby-house closet. There were a few occasions when Mother Antons disapprobationwas strangely excited. She called women whowere guilty of anything derogatory to their sex impudent hussies : and saucy trollops ; andold men who paraded about the hot streets onFourth of Julys with masonic aprons, and com-passes on their stomachs, stupid asses. Sheconsidered Dr. McGee and Dr. Eben Cowen thegreatest physicians in the world. She hung lit-tle bags of camphor about the childrens necks inthe time of the cholera. She cleaned house in the first week of May, rain or shine, and tooksuch pride in her boys that it would have fairly killed her had any one of them goneamiss. Now all these qualities made her an ideal \\fmaternal relative. Her nose was large, which we did nt object to, and her staturewas tall, which just balanced her nose. She wore a cap,
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