Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1861-07-12
CHANGE INTHE HOUSEHOLD.

vldual's better hall, as she sat IN corner
Of the farm kitchen, rapidly divesting a
chicken of its feathers I've worked
and shaved myself to death for him and
his'n, and all the thanks Pye had for the
last fifteen years has been short words
and general growlin' and fault fndin',
until now I'm just determined to stand
out and have my own way, or let things
take their own course, and he'll find, after
all, that Melissy Talcott has got some
spirit in her that can'tbe crushed out with
all his abusin' and aggravation." !"
To think he should have the heart to
refuse me new carpet after he had such
good luck with his wheat crop, and just
slaved myself through harvesting and got
along with one girl"
The more that man gets, the stingier
ne grows, and there isn't woman among
all my acquaintance that would stand
such treatment, and won't. III put my
foot down from this moment" setting
down most emphatically that solid mem
Der of her comcly person on the kitchen
floor; if Isaac Parsons won't come to
terms, ri quit hihl-that's ALL
Mrs. Melissa Parsons had been a re-
markably pretty girl in her youth, and
thirty-seyen years had made her fair
and comely woman.
Her husband was a somewhat phleg-
matte man, stubborn and opinionated, and
as his early life and social atmosphere
had not enlarged nor softened his char
acter, the hardest and most disagreeable
part of it expanded with his years. He
loved money, and as the aesthetic part of
his nature had never been cultivated, he
regarded it as wastefulness and extrava-
gance to indulge in much grace or beauty
Of surroundings.
Still there was another side to this man.
His affections were deep and tender, and
a iudicious and loving woman could have
reached and Influenced linn to almost any
degree through these, But Mrs Parsons
never understood her husband. She was
an impulsiye, high-spriled, and really
warm-hearted woman, with good deal
of petty social ambition, and she and her
husband were constantly jarring each
other.
Yet all these years the barns ana store
houses, the lands and gold of Isaac Par
sons increased, and God sent children
two boys and girl--two soften the hearts
of the father and mother, and to be to
them angels Of a new covenant of house,
hold peace and tenderness. But alas /!
alas the sweet faces, and all the beauti-
ful minstrations of childhood never ac-
complshed their mission; and, with their
hearts and tempers fretted, and soured,
and worn, Mr.. and Mrs. Parsons counted
the years growing over them, and both
felt that their marriage had been mis-
take and a misery, and with blind eyes
that would not see, and hard hearts that
would not understand, each blamed the
other, and mutual recrimination only pro-
duced fresh bitterness.
AT last crisis came. Mrs. Parsons
had set her heart that autumn upon a new
parlor carpet, which was in no wise un-
reasonable, and in which her husband
ought to have INDUCED her, but the man
ner of the request, which was in reality
a command, at once reused the inherent
stubbornness of the man, and he fatty re-
fused her. Then followed passionate re-
torts and angry words, till the husband
and wife separated with mutual bitterness
and rage.
But now as Mrs. Parsons took up her
denuded chicken and plunged it ia pan
of hot water, her eyes glanced on week
ly paper, which lay on the table, and they
settled upon this passage,which completed
a short sketch: Who when he was re-
viled, reviled not again, but committed his
cause to him that judgeth righteously.'
And these words stole, in a still, serene
rebuking voice, through the stormy soul
of Mrs. Parsons. She had read them in
Vulnerable times before, and they had for
her no special message nor meaning, but
now God had sent his angel to drop them
in her heart, and in a moment something
of the real sin and wrong of her life rose
up and confronted her.
She sat down in low chair by her
kitchen table. and rested her forehead on
her hand. The hard, fretful, angry look
went out from her face, and was succeed
ed by soft, thoughtful expression, and
the sunshine hung in yearning, golden,
shifting beauty about her.
And rhen the woman's memory went
back to her first acquaintance with Isaac
Parsons-he bad chosen her from among
a score Of others who envied her that