Besides their bein' so old, she had come from a mournin' family--her folks always mourned for everybody and everything they could. (You know some families are so, and I spoze they git some comfort out of it. And black duz look real respectable, but considerable gloomy.)

Their house wuz always shet up, and Oren walked round (rebellin' inside) under a mournin' weed.

And the six wimmen was all swathed in c.r.a.pe, and the hull house smelt of c.r.a.pe and logwood.

As I sez more formally, Lateza was brung up to it. She wuz ready to mourn on the slightest pretext, and mourn jest as long and stiddy as possible.

Wall, black _wuz_ becomin' to her. Bein' tall and spindlin', black sot her off, and c.r.a.pe draperies sort o' rounded off her figger and made her look some impressive.

And she loved to stay at home--she wuz made that way.

But I always felt that if she wanted to make a raven of herself for life, she no need to dye the feathers of the hull family in logwood, and tie 'em all up clost to the nest.

Oren had chafed aginst it bitterly, but he bore the sable yoke until the youngest girl, Lateza (and mebby she inherited some of the aristocratic sotness of her mother with the name)--

Anyway, when she come home from school she come dressed in gay colors.

She had on a yeller woosted dress with sky-blue trimmin's, a pink hat, a lilock veil, and a bunch of flowers in her bosom--too many colors to look well, but she did it to break her yoke.

This kinder stunted the mother, so she wuz easier to handle, bein'

kinder dazed.

So they took her off to a Christian Science meetin', and got her converted the first thing.

This broke her chain, for they don't believe in mournin' as one without hope, and they believe in wanderin' round and seein' the beautiful world all you can, and takin' some comfort while you are in it.

So while the zeal of the convert wuz on her, and she didn't feel like disputin', the girls made her some red dresses, and some yeller ones, and had some white streamers put onto a white bunnet she had. And they bought themselves the most gorgeous and gay clothin' Jonesville and Loontown afforded. Oren is well off, and he wouldn't stent 'em in such a cause as this--no, indeed!

And Oren bought some bright, gay-lookin' suits, and some brilliant neckties--pale blue silk, with red polka dots on 'em, and some otter-colored ones.

He had on the day we met him a bright plaid suit and a red necktie spangled with yeller, hangin' out kinder loose in front.

And Oren bought a three-seated carriage, and they jest scoured the hull country--went to all the parties they could hear on, and the fairs, and camp-meetin's, and such. They wuz on the go the hull time; and Lateza Alzina got to likin' it as much as Oren did.

I don't spoze they wuz to home hardly enough to eat their meals whilst they wuz in Jonesville; they had a good hired girl, so they wuz free to wander all they wuz a mind to.

This summer Lateza Alzina told me that they had been up to the upper end of Canada and British America on a tower, and come home round by Lake Champlain, and Lake George, and Saratoga; they'd stayed there three weeks, and then they went home and hurried and got ready for the Fair.

They come the first day it wuz opened in the mornin', and laid out to go home the last day of the Fair along in the night, so Oren said.

They all looked real happy, but some f.a.gged out from seein' so much.

I'm dretful afraid that the pendulum, havin' swung too fur on one side, is a-goin' too fur on the other; it is nater.

But mebby they'll settle down and be more megum when the pendulum gits kinder settled down some, and its vibration ceases to be so vibratin'.

Anyway, I'm glad to see 'em a-steppin' out of their weeds, and I told 'em so.

Sez I, "You wuz in mournin' a awful while, wuzn't you?"

Oren fairly gritted his teeth, and before Lateza Alzina could speak, he busted out--

"By Vum! I've mourned all I'm a-goin' to! I've staid penned up in the house all I'm a-goin' to!

"I've quit it, by Vum! First my stepfather pa.s.sed away. I never liked him--he always imposed on me; but we all went into deep mournin', staid out of society--jest shet ourselves up in a black jail for years.

"Then my mother-in-law left me--then three years more of solid black and solid stayin' to home.

"Then, at the end of the third year, we kinder quit off and begun to creep out a little and kinder lighten ourselves up a little; but then my wife's brother that she never see died way out to California and left a big property, but not a cent to us.

"But the rest of the family wanted to mourn, so my wife had to foller on and mourn too.

"And there it wuz agin, another time of gloom--another time of stayin'

to home.

"Time after time, jest as we got out a little, we had to plunge back into gloom agin.

"But now we're out of it, and by Heavens and earth we're a-goin' to stay out! There hain't a-goin' to be any more mournin' done in this family--not if I know myself, there hain't."

But I sez, "Oren, don't talk so; folks _have_ to mourn; this is a World of trials, and grief is nateral to it."

"Wall, I'll mourn in pepper and salt, and I'll mourn out-doors. I hain't a-goin' to wind myself up in c.r.a.pe, and shet myself up in a black hole no more, mourn or not mourn.

"And I'm a-goin' to laugh when I want to." And he jest laid his head back and bust out into a horse-laugh at nothin'.

But they didn't seem to mind it; I guess they wuz ust to it, and the girls kinder put in and laughed too. Lateza Alzina didn't laugh out loud, but she kinder snickered some.

It made me feel queer.

I see--I see the truth; the bow had been drawed too tight back, and now it wuz a-goin' to shoot too fur--way over the mark.

But still I felt that Oren had some truth on his side.

And I sez, "I always felt that you shet yourselves up too much and mourned too deep."

"Wall," sez Lateza Alzina, "my folks always brung me up to think that it would be apt to make talk if folks went out any while they wuz in black."

"Wall," sez I, "I always felt that folks had better set down and calculate which would be the most agreeable to 'em, to shet themselves up and lose their health, and die, or to let folks talk.

"And then act on them thoughts, and do as they want to with fear and tremblin'.

"And," sez I, "folks would talk whilst you wuz dyin', anyway; you can't keep folks from talkin'." Sez I, "Like as not they'd say it wuz a guilty conscience that made you droop round and stay to home so."

"Wall," sez Lateza Alzina, "I wuz brought up to think that it showed so much respect to them that wuz gone to stay to home in black."

"Wall," sez I, "if the ones that wuz gone loved you, they would want you to git all the consolation you could whilst you wuz parted. Jest as a mother lets her child have some picture-books to comfort it while she leaves it a spell.

"And if you loved them," sez I, "their memory would go out-doors with you, and go back into the house with you. You would see the beloved face lookin' down at you from every mountain you would climb, and the shadder of their form would seem to appear in the mist of every valley.

Every sunset would gleam with the smilin' light of their eyes, and every sunrise would begen to you, tellin' you that one more night had gone, and you wuz so much nearer to the Eternal Reunion.

"Folks don't have to stay indoors to remember, Lateza. I have remembered folks out-doors, it seems to me, more than I ever did in the house.