ON A PORCH 



house had been there half a century. It must 

 have been in its first period very patriarchal, with 

 a lordly air of domain and much riches on hoof 

 and in sheaves. I take it that this was the 

 grandfather period in the Hotchkiss chronology. 

 By a little adroit questioning, Griselle filled in 

 some of the gaps as best she could, partly from 

 hearsay, partly from the old Bible, and partly by 

 straight tradition through her uncle Gabe. 



Why should I be interested in all this, which 

 is the commonplace history of so many American 

 homes ? I will tell you why. First of all, the 

 commonplace is very apt to be the enduring 

 elemental thing upon which the shocks and vi 

 vacities of life fasten themselves for your mere 

 divertisement. In the next place the girl was 

 inscrutably interesting to me as she thus uncon 

 sciously tied herself to all these antecedents, which 

 had woven her to what she was. Can there be 

 anything more delightful to the admiring intellect 

 than the genesis of a girl thus artlessly set forth 

 without the suspicion on her part that she is 

 exhibiting formative and converging lines of her 

 nature ? 



There had been a great-grandmother Hotch 

 kiss, and the more you stirred the dust of the old 

 manse, the more distinctly her figure rose out of 

 the past. There was hunted up for me an old 

 miniature, no bigger than one of those morning- 

 glories, painted by Elliot, and in it one saw the 

 same pensive blue eyes, with the same slightly 

 oblique lines, the same tawny hair, but now fall- 



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