Stories from the Old Squire's Farm Book

These are great stories set in western Maine in the years following the Civil War. Six cousins, made orphans by the war, go to live with their grandparents, the Old Squire and Grandmother Ruth. The short stories are about their adventures on the farm, in the woods and at school. Old timey ways are sprinkled liberally throughout the narratives which are told from the point of one of the boys.
The assortment of cousins is well-rounded. Addison is the brainy, clever cousin who quickly sees through the schemes of others; Halstead is the sullen ill-tempered cousin who is easily influenced by others, Theodora is the little mother hen, always fretting over the others; Ellen is somewhat of a tomboy, Wealthy is Ellens little sister who dies during the course of the stories and C.A. Stephens character, who is never named in the original "Old Squire" stories but is called Nicholas here, seems to play minor roles in most of the stories and is the storyteller.
A sampling of stories is thus:
The Vermifuge Bottle - Tired taking Grandmother Ruth's vile tasting medicine when they are ill, Addison hits on a plan to substitute the "vermifuge" with better tasting, look-alike elderberry wine. A visiting clergyman, taking a glass of wine is treated to an unexpected surprise when he unknowingly gulps down the rank-tasting physic.
Learning to Shear Sheep - A young man comes to the Old Squire's farm looking for work. The old gentleman is not at home, but two of his grandsons are grudgingly shearing sheep instead of playing baseball with their friends. In the mood for "hard joking" the boys play a foolish prank when they set the stranger to learning the art of shearing sheep - by practicing on the hogs!
I work in a public library and C.A. Stephens is my favorite author. He is an American treasure who has not yet been given the recognition he is due. He wrote for the "Youth's Companion" for almost 60 years which was an immensely popular periodical in this country. The publication was around from 1827 until 1929 and influenced many children growing up in the 1800s, (such as Laura Ingalls Wilder, who mentions the "Youth's Companion" in her "Little House" books). C.A. Stephens was the Companion's most prolific writer, writing under his own name and various pseudonyms. His quasi-autobiographical "Old Squire" stories were my personal favorites and I always can find reading fodder among them. Professor Waugh did an admirable job of editing "Stories from the Old Squire's Farm", but did take some subtle liberties with the tales which can be annoying if you're familiar with the author's work independent of Waugh's anthology,(liberties such as spelling Catherine with a K instead of a C like C.A. Stephens did).
At any rate, those who are interested in what it was like to be part of a Maine farm family in the years following the Civil War, will certainly enjoy meeting Addison, Halstead, the Old Squire, Grandmother Ruth, Theodora, Ellen and the rest of the neighbors, scalawags and characters who make up the Old Squire's world. Here you will find stories of adventure and others that will make you laugh or cry. These tales are based loosely on the author's childhood in Norway, Maine, and were written in response to requests for true stories from the readers of the Youth's Companion.
The endearing and enduring features that make these stories timeless are the threads of gold running through the tapestry. As you enjoy the stories, you can't help but pick up intimate knowledge of life in the 1860s and 1870s spiced with politics, history, science, family values and human nature.
C.A. Stephens wrote somewhere around 300 Old Squire stories; only a fraction of which appear in this book and another, "Sailing on the Ice". I would not have chosen the same tales that Waugh did as representative of C.A. Stephen's work, but at least some of the stories are out there, (most of the Old Squire anecdotes never made it to books at all, they were destined to remain exclusively inside the folds of the Youth's Companion).
One interesting side note to these tales is that the character of Addison, the brainy, clever cousin, was based on C.A.Stephens third cousin, Addison Verrill who was the first professor of zoology at Yale University at the age of 25. Addison's character in the Old Squire stories was groomed well for that role. He was always studying wildlife, rocks and people's characters, seeing through many attempts to get the best of him or his beloved grandfather, the Old Squire. Along with his sagaciousness, he is a typical teen at times and even has an occasional slightly mischevious streak.
The Old Squire's character was named for C.A. Stephen's paternal grandfather, Joseph Stevens, but based personality-wise on his maternal grandfather, Micah Upton, who lived to be 98 and was still living when Stephens began to write the Old Squire stories. The character of the Old Squire is who everyone would love to have for a grandfather; kind, thoughful, wise, even-tempered, hard-working and successful as a gentleman farmer, he gently brings dignity to situations and helps the grandchildren make sense of life's struggles.
C.A. Stephen's Old Squire stories are well worth reading and should charm people for generations to come.