" "If we used 'em all the time they wouldn't get
obsolete, would they?" asked Mary; and the school teacher, being a
logical person, made no answer. So Mary went on plying them with a
conscientious calmness like one determined to keep a precious and
misprized metal in circulation. She even called Nicholas gran'ther,
because he liked it, and because he had called his own grandfather so.
"Ye see," said Nicholas, "the fust rec'ids were missin'. 'Burnt up!'
says that town clerk over to Sudleigh. 'Burnt when the old
meetin'-house ketched fire, arter the Injun raid.' 'Burnt up!' thinks
I. 'The cat's foot! I guess so, when the communion service was carried
over fifteen mile an' left in a potato sullar.' So I says to myself,
'What become o' that fust communion set?' Why, before the meetin'-house
was repaired, they all rode over to what's now Saltash, to worship in
Square Billin's's kitchen. Now, when Square Billin's died of a fever,
that same winter, they hove all his books into that old lumber-room
over Sudleigh court-house. So, when I was fixin' up the court-house
clock, t'other day, I clim' up to that room, an' shet myself in there.
An', Mary, I found them rec'ids!" He looked at her with that complete
and awe-stricken triumph which nobody else had ever seen upon his face.
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