The Hancock Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Ohio) 1857-1870, 1869-05-14
broached the subject to her husband

"lney are OUT VI uate 90 peg
with and half ofthem are erscke
or broken; besides there is not ne
lks enough to set the table,
"What's become of the chin
mother used them when she h:
company ?''
''It won't look well on the tabl
Robert, with this mulberry all crac
ed up as 1T is"
81 guess the victuals will taste ju
as well out of them, anyway
"But we really need the dishe.
Robert. There has not been dis
bought since I came here twelS
years ago, and
They'll do just as well for twely
years TO come. You wouldn't hav
thought of it if it hadn't been 'fc
the Sewing Circle. If they can
come and eat out of such dishes q
we've got, they are welcome to sta
/ away" And he took down his hi
to go back to his moving.
There were tears in Mrs. Thomr
sons eyes, but she crowded thea
bravely back, and tried hard t
Il steady the tremor in her voice, a
she said pleadingly:
"Please TO give me the money t.
get them, Robert. Grover has 90
some real pretty ores, and cheap
too; / can get all / shall need 10
four dolIarsn =s s
swell, ] guess Grover'll keep zen
tor all me. I've got no four dollar
J. to spare turning 10 go out. By th'
way turning back from the door
Jones and Lee and Hubbard will b'
here to dinner, and perhaps to sup
E per- We want TO get all the south
meadow down 10 day, if we can.--
7 Grass is stout this year, there's 9
: third more than there was last
/ And Hubbard wants six pounds o.
/ butter to-uighI-don't forget TO have
, il ready ..4
Il And with these words he went out
leaving his wife to her long, weary
t days work, darkened aud made dis
tasteful by her disappointment
She was both grieyed and angry L;
was little thing, perhaps, bus'it is
the lille things of lie which delight
or annoy.
Lie looked very bare aud homely
TO Jane Thompson that summer day.
With all her love OF ease, and beau
ty, and symmetry, how rude, and
coarse, and hard, looked all her sur
ronndings, Il was ONLY enc long and
m0notouous round of hOmely toll,
unrelieyed by any Of the little sweet
n-sscs and graccs Shat might make
every toll pleasant. she di.i not o.
ten think OF ii, but she remembered
that day, with the taintest iitlie stir
of regret, that she might nave been
'ar differently situsto,l aud as she
looked up to the pretty French cot
.tsge on the hill, embowered IN Irr
feet forest OF hl0ssomipg vines, aud
caught the cool g!eam OF the urn and
.iOunt8lu, something like 4 sigh trem
hled cn her lips. Squire Burnham 5
wife didn't have to beg Tor paltry
four dollars that she might be able
to set table decently, she thought,
bitterly.
And then, as one does when they
feel aggrieved, she remembered .
score of other things, equally need
full and equally within their means,
which had been as churiishly refused.
There was the parior carpet, it was
half cotton. and faded and thread
bare, at that, and the paper had been
on ever since she was child, and
was stained where il had leaked
down last winter, and yet Robert
said it was good enough for what
little they used it, and absolutely re
fused to get either. And so of a
score of other things which she re-
membered that morning, as she toll
ed through all the long, sultry fore
noon with an aching head and a dis
rouraged heart.
What did it matter to her if The
grass was heavy, and butter up to
forty cents o pound p? 1t only
brought her more and harder work,
and no recompense save her bare
board and clothing. She could earn
more than that in any other man s
house.
"Well, had no business to marry
Robert Thompson" she said to her
self, moodily, her slender wrists
aching from beating over the butter
for Hubbard, Everybody always
said he was close and shrewd, and
prophesied he would be rich some
day--what did she care for riches il
they didn't do her any good, didn't
make her life any faIrer or softer
She was not fittej to be a farmers
wife-snd yet she had loved Robert
Thompson y
She said this half savagely, as if
she was disgusted and angry at her
self for it. O -.r--
And yet Robert Th ompson was
not an unkind man, only thoughtless.
He was type OF a very large class
of men, more especially farmers,
who do not feel. in. themselves the
needs which woman's more austetic
nature demands. Absorbed in his
stock, his crops and his politics, he
did not realize that his wife needed,
and had Alright to few of the things
that, with her peculiar organism,
were as much need to her being
as the food she ate.
And so the years ran on, they
grew further and further apart, he
getting more and more absorbed in
grain, and growing more careless OF
looks and culture, and more thought
less aud less tender in regard to his
wife's tastes or tolls, white she grew
bitter, despondent and irritable.
Robert Thompson was, besides, a
little inclined to fault t-finding, and not
being at all of sensitive tempera-
ment himself, he did not realize how
keenly he wounded his wife; and
when, sometimes, she gave back a
bitter retort, he wondered what it
was that had soured her disposition
so, for ne remembered she used to
be called unusually sweet tempered.
All through the long forenoon
Mrs. Thompson had nursed herl
wrath. Robert was selfish and un- |
reasonable, and she did not care who
knew it. "She would not have the
Circle meet there, and set the table
with that old fashioned china, a,zand
that stained and cracked mulberry