The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1869-07-09
SflisreIIalteuns SsIsttions.
Mrs. ThompsOn's White Ware.


j Mrs. Thompson stood by the kitchen
table pairing potatoes for dinner. Some
thing was evidently wrong with the
little lady, for there was an unmistak-
able air of spite in the way she tossed
the potatoes in the pan of cool spring
water, waiting there to receive them.
1t was a sultry July day, and through
the ope, window came the sound OF
mowers whetting their scythes blended
with the call of the robin aud the faint
notes of the cuckoo in the shaded wood.
But it only irritated Mrs. Thompson
Indeed everything irritated her that
: day. Looking out from the back door,
one saw lovely landscape with broad
reaches of mellow land, fripged with
graceful belts of birch, and softly round
ed mountains lifting their velvety fore
heads to the white, fleecy clouds, that
went slowly sailing across the exquisite
ether, like huge drifts of thistledown,
But this also irritated her; everything
could be beautiful save her life, and that
was cold, and rude, and barren.
But to begin at the beginning. Jane
Lawrence had been an unusually ro-
mantle girl, and she had always fancied
she would marry some famous artist or
scholar, who would take her to Rome,
or Venice, where she would live in a
perpetual dream cf beauty. She so
loved beautiful things! Perhaps all
women do, and perhaps that is the rea-
son so many barter love for gold.
But, contrary to all her pFeconceiyed
notions, she married Robert Thompson,
a plain, practical farmer; and instesd Of
Italy she went to live at the old home
stead, which had been the abode of the
Thompsons for generations, and instead
of lounging in elegant studios, or GID
ing down storied rivers in picturesque
gondoIss, she made butter and cheese,
raised poultry, and cooked dinners in
the long low ceiled kitchen for three
or four great brown handed, rayenous
men. Quite contrast you will admit.
If she could have had things little
different, she wouldn't have minded the
work so much. If she could have had
soft carpets, and tasteful furniture, and
books, and pictures, and flowers. To
be sure she had little slip under the
south window where sweet brier grew
and pinks, sweet-willisms, and mari
Colds blossomed in their aeason. But
they were so old fashioned, and she
pined for the rare and elegant plants she
had seen in the Conservatives and pub
lie gardens. But Robert Thompson
would as soon have thought of buying
the moon as such useless things as
flowers, and though his wife earned
them dozen times over, it never en-
tered his heart that she did. Indeed,
he considered it very liberal thing
when he gave her twenty-five dollars,
fall and spring, to buy her clothing,
and wondered vaguely where it all
went to, and if she had not got some
boarded away somewhere. Il
AS to books, there was the family
Bible, with the record of all the Thomp-
sons for three generations. Then there
was Foxes Book of Martyrs, and Pill
grim's Progress, and an English Read
er, which her Thompson had when he
was a boy and went to school in the
little red school house up on the 'Pine
Barreus.' Besides, there was the Re-
port of the Board of Education, Laws
and Resolves, Patent Office Reports, and
pile of the Farmers Almanac for
twenty-five years, besides any number
of documents on the best and most i'm
proved breed of cattle, the theory Of
Undertaking, rotation of cryps, grass
and forage culture, etc, etc.
What would any reasonable person
ask for more than that9 And as for
pictures, there was 'From the Cradle to
the Grave an allegorical picture paint
ed in colors, with a descriptive couplet
attending each particular stage of the
journey, a sampler which his mother
had worked when eleven years of age,
and a very effective scene illustrative of
The Lovers Parting wherein very
checked dsmsel in puged sleeves,
short waist and very low neck dissolved
in the arms of her parting swain.
Certainly Mrs. Robert Thompson must
have been hard to please, but the par
ticular matter Of grievance on this par
ticular day was of quite another thing.
The Baskerville Sewing Circle and
Lades' Benevolent Society," were to
meet at the farm house the next Fri
day, and Mrs. Thompson had set her
head on new set of white ware for the
occasion, and that morning had preach
ed the subject to her husband.
whats the matter with the dishes 7
be asked, pointing to the mulberry and
white plates, which Mrs. Thompson was
washing.
They are out of date, to begin with ;
and half of them are cracked, or broken
besides there is not near enough to set
the table
whats become of the china mother
used when she had companyP
1T won't look well on the table,
Robert, with this mulberry all cracked
up as it u.s.
4 guess the vituals will taste Just as
well opt of them, anyway
But we really need the dishes, Rob-
ert. There has not been dish bought
since / came here twelve years ago,
and o..- 70, DEE
They'll do just as as well for twelve
years to come. You wouldn't have
thought of it if it hadn't been for the |
Sewing Circle. If they can't come and
eat out of such dishes as we've got, |
they are welcome to stay away And |
he took down his hat to go back to his
moving. ~r-
There were tears in Mrs ThompsOn's
eyes, but she crowded them bravely
back, and tried hard to steady the tre-
NOR in her voice, as she said pleading
please to give me the money to get
them, Robert. Grover has got some
real pretty ones, and cheap, too; I can
get all l shall need for four dollars
Well, Z guess Grover'n keep 'em for
all me. I've got no four dollars to
spare turning TO go out. by the way,
looking back from the door, Jones and
Lee and Hubbard will be here for din
ner, and perhaps to supper. We want
to get all the south meadow down to-
day, if we can. Grass is stout this
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