Quincy Adams Sawyer and Masons Corner Folks | Page 5

seldom, and there's a seat 'tween Mrs. Hawkins and Tilly
James for the Professor, and Sam Hill's t'other side of Tilly and nex' to
S'frina Cotton."

"I guess I can't go," said 'Zekiel. "The house is all alone, and I'm kind
of 'fraid thet thet last hoss I bought may get into trouble again as he did
last night. So I guess I'd better go home and look arter things." Leaning
over he whispered in Hiram's ear, "I reckon you'd better take the seat
between Huldy and Mandy, you don't want ter separate a mother from
her daughter, you know."
"All right," said Hiram, with a knowing wink, "I'm satisfied to
obleege."
Hiram then turned to the Professor: "Ain't yer goin', Mr. Strout?"
"When this sleigh ride was projected," said the Professor with dignity,
"I s'posed it was to be for the members of the singin' class and not for
boardin' mistresses and city loafers."
"I guess it don't make much difference who goes," replied Hiram, "as
long as we git a free ride and a free supper for nothing."
"Present my compliments to Mr. Sawyer," said the Professor, "and tell
him I've had my supper, and as I don't belong to a fire company, I don't
care for crackers and cheese and coffee so late in the evenin'."
"Oh, bosh!" cried Hiram, "it's goin' to be a turkey supper, with fried
chicken and salery and cranberry juice, and each feller's to have a bottle
of cider and each girl a bottle of ginger ale."
A horn was heard outside, it being the signal for the starting of the
barge. Without stopping to say good-by, Hiram rushed out of the room,
secured his seat in the barge, and with loud cheers the merry party
started off on their journey.
The Professor extinguished the lights and accompanied by 'Zekiel left
the building. He locked the door and hung the key in its accustomed
place, for no one at Mason's Corner ever imagined that a thief could be
so bad as to steal anything from a schoolhouse. And it was once argued
in town meeting that if a tramp got into it and thus escaped freezing,
that was better than to have the town pay for burying him.

Both men walked along silently until they reached Mrs. Hawkins'
boarding house; here the Professor stopped and bade 'Zekiel good night.
After doing so he added:
"Pettengill, you and me must jine agin the common enemy. This town
ain't big enough to hold us and this destroyer of our happiness, and we
must find some way of smokin' him out."
The slumbers of both 'Zekiel and the Professor were broken when the
jolly party returned home after midnight. 'Zekiel recalled Hiram's
description of the arrangement of seats, and another deep sigh escaped
him; but this time there were no leafless trees and winter wind to
supply an echo.
The Professor's half-awakened mind travelled in very different
channels. He imagined himself engaged in several verbal disputes with
a number of fisticuff encounters in which he invariably proved to be
too much for the city fellow. Just before he sank again into a deep sleep
he imagined that the entire population of Mason's Corner escorted a
certain young man forcibly to the railroad station at Eastborough
Centre and put him in charge of the expressman, to be delivered in
Boston. And that young man, in the Professor's dream, had a tag tied to
the lapel of his coat upon which was written, "Quincy Adams Sawyer."
CHAPTER II.
MASON'S CORNER FOLKS.
In 186-- the town of Eastborough was located in the southeastern part
of Massachusetts, in the county of Normouth. It was a large town,
being fully five miles wide from east to west and from five to seven
miles long, the northern and southern boundaries being very irregular.
The town contained three villages; the western one being known as
West Eastborough, the middle one as Eastborough Centre, and the
easterly one as Mason's Corner. West Eastborough was exclusively a
farming section, having no store or post office. As the extreme western
boundary was only a mile and a half from Eastborough Centre, the

farmers of the western section of the town were well accommodated at
the Centre. The middle section contained the railroad station, at which
five trains a day, each way, to and from Boston, made regular stops.
The Centre contained the Town Hall, two churches, a hotel, and
express office, a bank, newspaper office, and several general stores.
Not very far from the hotel, on a side road, was the Almshouse, or
Poorhouse, as it was always called by the citizens of Eastborough.
Between the Centre and Mason's Corner was a long interval of three
miles. The land bordering the lower and most direct route was, to