Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1858-06-03
farmers Wives.

know it but it is as true as gospel. Dating
back with the beginning of our social system,
we find thai sho sst the bottom of all the
bold and brave enterprises that have made us
great, and has Sustained the burden and the
heat of the whole day in our national under
taking. Because she has had the making of
the men, training tb9m from the very gristle of
boyhood. She bss srred tho whole frabric in
Ac osyn heart Ssr@ss-rpaa hor have the heroes
relied, and to llt Splrobation looked for their
chief reward s.fhe wives of the farmers
were the women Of the Revolution, of
whom we can not say enough in praise AL
though it may be said of them that they pro.
jected or gave shapts g our revolutionary plans,
yet without their eaicient aid we have to ac-
knowledge that lieIe or nothing could have
been done.
The wife. in the csontry, is the one and only
being who makes he homestead beautiful.
She invests it with az. atmosphere of love. She
the single magnet by which husband and
children are attracted there, She can make all
things lovely and bright, or she can create
cloudliness and gloom, put everybody in the
sulks, and make the wIiDle household wish they
lived anywhere else butthere. A woman can
do as much as that anywhere, I know but in a
country house she possesses a peculiar power
that elsewhere she has not. In the retirement
of rural life it is not 50 easy to get away from
home that is notorously unpleasant and un-
comfortable but in the crowd and variety of
city it is very difficult natter.
Farmers wives, in orr rural districts, are
hardly aware of their influence They under
rate themselves practicoAly, to begin with ;
they run to one extreme, and think themselves
of no consequence in tie world and then they
run to another, and declare they are just us
good as anybody. That is hardly in character.
a little brush-the least placticle in they world
of city influence, and they are all in a fiuster,
In an instant they are willing to forget all the
beauty and the charming associations of their
country home-life, and grow crazy with envy
of their city cousins fopnces and furbelows.
The calm, contemplative, teally religious ex-
istence they enjoy in the heart of nature, they
entirely undervaluc, aud wsuld gladly trade it
off for a sight of stony ~ ksts, the sound of
r'-tl'ns oaitS, rnd si''--Te7aI Iiy Of fnever again
seeing the sun rise and set
The great trouble with a country women is,
she is made altogether too much of drudge.
ltmay seem very pretty and very romantic to
you, dear madam to talk of the Arcadian life
such a woman must lead away from towns and
their influences, but it is by no means such a
sort of life as you begin TO imagine to yourself.
We say that the wife of the farmer is made to
much of drudge. 1t is expected of her that
she shall milk the cows, suckle the calves, and
sometimes feed the pigs always feed the hens
and ducks, besides do various other little
"chores " that are not quite 81 consistent with
her female nature Then the same hard tasks
follow another in the same hard routine from
morning till night and she can not help offer
ing up an inward thanksgiving when Goo
draws the curtain for mankind to lay their head
on their pillows and go to sleep.
English country ladies have fresh, robust
and hearty look Ours, however wear differ
ent appearance. The country ladies in Americ;
have careworn, anxious, responsible air. as i
all the interests of the farm, its occupants, ant
L tbo al on1nl,r tbon, cnlv IIa
the time they are a good deal smarter than tn
men, and take the business out of their hands
They can reckon you up the cost and the valu
of u hog or ' critter,'' without even havn
access to the slate whereas their husband
: would have to hunt up and study all the chalk
marks around the homestead, in order to get a
!. what they wanted. IF the majority of on
farmers are suddenly asked what they will tax
for their new beef, they will turn and answe
that they would not like to sell without firs
II consulting " mother meaning their wif'
~ In this, and in other ways the woman in til
e country becomes gradually unfemnine, loses
y certain degree of that sweetness and freshne'
= which SO beautifully becoJes the female cha
;. acter, minges in with the loughness, and hare
ness, and dirt, and drudgery of farm-work an
farm-lfe, and in the lapse of time unconsciou
n ly parts with some of those attractive qua
% tiles in her nature that should everywhere
p found in company with women.
y But we are getting too much upon II
D. ground of the essayist. 1t is our provin'
= rather to describe the life of the farmers wi
re companion than to speculate or philosophi
ubon the character and resultsof such life.
TX Well, then, most farmers wives are last u
IL at night, and the earliest up in the mornin,
er And although no decent man, fit to call hin
self an American farmer, would permit
wife to rise first and make the fire on winter
le morning, yet she is thrifty and ambitio,
enough to be in the kitchen very soon after
I'd is bustling about the sink, the pots and kettle
H. and the table, fixing things generally for brea
ne fast preparations, and arranging for the pr
e. gross of the day s work. You never catch h
d, idle She moves twice as quick as her husban
oil and gets through just about twice as mu'
OK business in the same time.
Ike Breakfast over, the days operations begi
e's And it is not possible to tell what they will
he from one day to another, either. Sometimes
is one thing, and then it is clear another. T
milk is to scald the butter is to ehurn: t
nd dishes are to be washed in the season, t
ur young chickens are to be looked after t
IN children must have their faces washed and
sent to school the luncheon must be thong
of for the workmen in the field dinner mt
by be got into the pot the table is to set agail
to then it must be cleared off, then the sewi
re- must be dono or company ride IN to the doc