title: The Last Village Smithy: Memories of a Small Town In the New England Hills
author:  Ray Glabach 
description: I've lost count of the number of readers who have told me how my book has brought back memories of their own about growing up in a mid-20th century environment. It's wonderful to bring so many smiles to so many faces. Younger readers too have thanked me for painting a picture in their minds of how their parents and grandparents lived in the years before TV, iPads, and cell phones... in some cases, before electricity and telephones were common.
zlib_text: 
  
  
  
  
  
  ![cover](resources/_cover_.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  # Miss Mehetabel's Son
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Thomas Bailey Aldrich
  
  
  This page formatted 2007 Blackmask Online.
  
  
  http://www.blackmask.com
  
  * [I. THE OLD TAVERN AT BAYLEY'S FOUR CORNERS.](mime_split_2.html#1_0_2)
  
  
  * [II. THE CASE OF SILAS JAFFREY.](mime_split_3.html#1_0_3)
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
      
  
  Produced by David Widger
  
  
  
  
  
  MISS MEHETABEL'S SON.
  
  
  By Thomas Bailey Aldrich
  
  
  Boston And New York Houghton Mifflin Company
  
  
  Copyright, 1873, 1885, and 1901
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### I. THE OLD TAVERN AT BAYLEY'S FOUR
  
  
  CORNERS.
  
  
  
  
  
    
  You will not find Greenton, or Bayley's Four-Corners, as it is more
  
  
  usually designated, on any map of New England that I know of. It is not
  
  
  a town; it is not even a village; it is merely an absurd hotel. The
  
  
  almost indescribable place called Greenton is at the intersection of
  
  
  four roads, in the heart of New Hampshire, twenty miles from the
  
  
  nearest settlement of note, and ten miles from any railway station. A
  
  
  good 