Annals of our ancestors; one hundred and fifty years of history in the ...

CHANGES IN THE OLD HOME 213
very long when Mr. Isaac Morris asked me to come back to
his sadly bereft home at Green Tree to help them for a time.
The story I am going to relate occurred about a year after
the death of our sister Julia's mother, and as it was so clear a
repetition of history in the Morris family I will write of it.
I have already related that Saturday afternoon on the Green
Tree Farm was a half-holiday, and at that time the horses were
in harness and the new buggy and the old rockaway carriage
that belonged to the family were out. Usually Grandfather
Morris or Mr. Isaac Morris used the old carriage, while John
or Bert took the new high-topped buggy; but in those days
the boys used it only if they got it first, for it was noticeable
that the shining buggy acquired a habit of standing in front
of the Widow Walters' house on Saturday afternoons, and the
fact began to be much talked over around the Green Tree
corners. The summer passed and the autumn had begun
when Mr. Isaac Morris made a confidante of Aunt 'Rusha
Spinning, who had lived in the family so many years that she
remembered well the shock when she witnessed the sudden
return of Benjamin Morris with a new wife, which upset the
home of Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Morris. Now she had to hear
that Mr. Isaac Morris would soon bring home a new housekeeper
for that old home.
I remember yet the sad, grieved look she had that day, for
she foresaw that much would change, and for her it would be
the loss of what had long been her home. Mr. Morris had
enjoined secrecy until a certain time, when he would expect
her to prepare the family for the advent of his new partner.
True, the families had been neighbors, but it is also true that
they did not look with favor upon the union. It developed
that the next Sunday would be the wedding day, and he would
bring his wife over to meet the family and later she would
move in and assume her duties as wife and housekeeper. Pale
and sad, dear old Aunt 'Rusha told us what we might expect
on Sunday afternoon. She also wondered if the father remembered
his father's second marriage; but if he did no one
knew it, for Isaac Morris was a silent man and kept his thoughts
to himself.