Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1870-04-22


degree; other furniture to correspond,
arranged at stiff angles around the walls.
This sacred apartment, as well as tho
whole main part o tho house, was kept
cold. dark, shut up, suggestive to tho
bold invader who dared penetrate their
dreary shades only of funerals. The
family lived mostly in the kitchen, sus-
tanned. probably, by the proud conscious.
ness of possessing best parlor and hair
cloth furniture. Passing by at night. you
would think the house uninhabited. did
not ray of light from way back in the l.
rcassure you. Did company come unex.
pectedly, SO great 4 parade was made of
building fires, opening rooms, getting out
the best things. that the unfortunate guest
felt that he should never dare TO come
again. So Lance and Laura were uncon-
sciously doing missionary work, in de-
monstrating that farmers home need
not be necessarily destitute of any dcsira-
ble comfort or refinement. That we may
see how the public stood affected, VIC will
lift the curtain on Aunt Polly Grigg's
"best room," on an occasion of more than
usual solemnity. Ten years of meetings.
funerals, sewing societies, tca-drinkings,
having in measure destroyed the primi-
tive histre of Aunt Polly's best a pacca, it
was being turned and modernized, Miss
Scraps having been summoned to aid on
this important occasion. To them. thus
momentously engaged, entered Mrs.
Stowel, dropping 10 on her way to the
village TO do little trading. ostensibly
out of pure affection for Aunt Polly. but
really to clip sleeve pattern gratis out
of Miss Scraps. This little preliminary
settled Mrs Stowell said
"As | come down by the Lamberts.
there sat Laura at her front window, as
large ns life. prinked up As much as
should be il was going to tea to the
ministers. You don't suppose they've
got company do you'"
LA, no, replied aunt Polly; "she sets
there every afternoon, fadin her best car
pet all oat never heard anything 10
equal it,"
"Nothings too good for some folks,
you know" observed Miss scraps. with
,pteful snap of her scissors.
Il shouldn't think Lance would allo W
it," suggested Mrs. Stoweil. That
want old Miss Lambert's way of doing"
"A;iow it! My, he thinks she's just
right, and every thing she says ia law and
gospel"
well they do say she makes tip-top
housekeepcr. better than folks thought
for before they were married. Mrs, Jed L.
Jones told me she gets fifty-five cents q
pound for all her butter in Boston"
"Fifty-fye cents almost shrieked aunt
Polly, who had only fifty for hers.
Yes; fifty-Gye cents. Yon see she
fixes il Ill up in some fancy ball. She. a
regular manager, tell you"
So it will be seen Laura was gra dually
rising in popular esteem. 1t was fact
that the same system, culture. Judgment
patience, that made her = successful teach
er. also made her good housekeeper
Instead Of doing every thing in the hard
est way, driving it through by main
strength. she put some mind into her
work. planned. had method, and made
| her brains save her hands.
But some skeptical reader may possibly
suggest that the life Ct a farmers wife
does not consist entirely Of sitting in ivy
wreathed parlors with bright bows on !;
that there are certain disagreeable actuali-
ties of churnings, bakings, washngs.
pig-killings, hired men, not to be ignored.
Ii is truc it was not all sunshine. Few
lives are. Keats says:
where's the eye, however blue,
! Doth not weary ~
SO it may be presumed Laura did not
escape her share Of the discipline Life
has for every station. Sometimes she
was drcadfuly tired, anu consequently a
little blue. Sometimes, after hard days
work, day when she did not feel very
well, and the children were cross, and
everything went wrong-such days as
will come occasionally in every household
she was tempted, perhaps, to look back,
half regretfully, to the peaceful days Of
| girlhood. But Lance was so good, SO
considerate. If Laura was ,rifle cross.
he discreeily said nothing. which course
soon brought her to very becoming state
of purity and pentence. lie did not look
look upon women's work ~ nothing, be-
cause different from his. He felt it as
right that Laura should have help in the
house as he had on the farm, even if in
the end he owned less bank stock and
government bonds rs result. He actual
| " thought more OF his wife than OF
money. So if Laura were pecuniariiy
less profitable to him than big strapping
Phemie Stowel would have been. and if
Laura sometimes had her trials and vexa-
tions, they never regretted yielding to the
secret attraction OF tho strong love that
drew them toward each other-a love
that bound them only the more closely to
each other as the years went on, and The
experiences they brought were enjoyed
and endured together.-Harper's Maga-
zine.