Uncle Ike Pettengill had been a successful business man in Boston, but
at the age of sixty had wearied of city life, and decided to spend the
rest of his days in the country. Despite the objections of his wife and
two grown up daughters, he sold out his business, conveyed two-thirds of
his property to his wife and children, and invested the remaining third
in an annuity, which gave him sufficient income for a comfortable
support. He did not live at the Pettengill house, but in a little
two-roomed cottage or cabin that he had had built for him on the lower
road, about halfway between Mason's Corner and Eastborough Centre. A
short distance beyond his little house, a crossroad, not very often
used, connected the upper and lower roads. Uncle Ike had a fair-sized
library, read magazines and weekly papers, but never looked at a daily
newspaper. His only companions were about two hundred hens and chickens
and a big St. Bernard dog which he had named "Swiss," after his native
land.
The other residents of the Pettengill homestead were two young men named
Jim and Bill Cobb, who aided Ezekiel in his farm work, and Mandy
Skinner, the "help," who was in reality the housekeeper of the
establishment.
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