Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1870-06-10
Tales aud Sketehes.
MY MOTHER.IN.LAW.

$50 you're going to marry John Wheeler,
are you, Chat. and move right into the
house with the old folks" said my uncle
Peter, as he came in suddenly, one morn
ing. long ago, and found me buried in the
pretty mysteries of lawns and laces, and
knots and bows OF ribbons, and the glow
on my cheek as red as the heart of The
sweetest rose in the wreath of my white
silk bonnet.
Eyes, Isuppose So said l, bending over
| a head of dainty rufliing to hide my en-
barassment.
"Well, child, give you joy of your new
mother-in-law, said he, peeping around to
see what my busy hands were doing,
land, Chatty, if you havn't a hard life be-
fore you no one ever did have. pity you
that's so; my heart aches for you, lit
tie niece; and believe if that old terma-
giant does not treat you like human being
I'll slip round to the grove back of the cot
tage with my shot gun, hunting quails,
and I'll make mistake and shoot her
ha! ha!" and then jolly old uncle Peter
| Whitaker leaned back in his chair and
laughed right merrily.
''1ou know, uncle Peter, it is an old
saying that mother-in-law and daugh-
ter-in-law are natural enemies. Now do
YOU really believe that there is a mother.
n-law in this world whose heart has no,
some tender place in it which may be
! found-that she may be touched tenderly
lovingly, if one can only find the right
key2"
'Well, I don't know, sis, / am afraid
Granny Wheeler is an exception. When
| lived on Downing farm, joining Wheel
ers, | did think | never saw her equal
she thought no one knew anything but her.
self My wife could not get along with
her, and you know Sofie's way is kind and
gentle, and forbearing. felt sometimes
as though it would be a real satisfaction to
me to make mouths at her and go yeh
yeh yeh! She used to make me feel very
ugly, and spiteful, and devilish, as though
| should enjoy calling her names. Oh,
she has an eye like an old Norway rat-so
sharp and bright and cunning
why that's enmity, uncle Peter" said /
| beginning to feel that | must stand up for
Johns mother.
'Fiddlesticks - said he, shutting his to.
bacco box with click, and slipping it into
his pocket, and rising to leave.
"Well, Uncle" said |, "as Mrs. John
Wheeler Jr., we''ll be good friends. won't
we? And you'll come and see Chattv, and
she'll visit you; and if she should make
any discoveries she'll tell you.
Yes" he replied signing; land if you
find out really that Granny Wheeler has a
drop OF human blood in her veins let me
be advised of it."
Forewarned is forearmed. Do YOU think,
reader, there was a cloud no bigger than a
doves wing even in my beautiful summers
sky? | thought one little minute seriously,
my hands outspread midway in the air
between my heap of foamy laces and my
forehead and something, perhaps the good
angel who has never yet deserted me for
an hour-made me say with brave smile.
whose twinkle | found in my eyes, at will
be Just as make it. just as | will it :"
Then those grand old words came surg
ing up full of hope and strength, and an
anthem of eXultation -
Unto thyself be true.
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
The wedding was a quiet affair; we
were married by the grey-haired old pas
tor who had dandled me on his knee in
baby-hood, and whose raven locks | had
pulled to my hearts content--in whose
pocket had searched to find something
good for little girls. OF all the ministers
had known, he alone was the one to ot1i-
ciate on this important occasion.
We moved into the same house with
Johns parents, and tried to take the place
of al daughter. OF course | did not find
every thing as | would like to have it but
| made allowance for the manner in which
we had been brought up. Mother treated
me kindly enough, but as though had no
judgment, and could hardly be trusted
alone with anything that required care or
thought. 1t seemed that she regarded me
as a child, to be looked after and made
comfortable. Sometimes, if felt ready
to cry out, would say ''For his dear sake" :"
and dry up my tears, and make myself
happy. Little trials, like little thorns of
the thistle, met me every day, but had
shod my feet in anticipation.
tried not to draw any comparisons be-
tween my two homes, but they would
come up to me.
One of the adornments with which
mother Wheeler beautified the walls OF
her rooms was cat and two kittens cut
out of black cloth and pinned on white
background. / grew very tired of the
round headed cats, and cautiously sugges-
ted their removal, but her 'Oh, no, like
the snow-white curtains to be so long that
they would Just touch the floor, but she
wanted them made long enough to reach
to the window sills, and starched stitlly
that they ratified like paper.
Over the mirror in the sitting-room were
long sprays of asparagus dropped that in
the twilight looked like faint mist, while
the finest gilt and bronzed tail feathers of
slaughtered chickens intermingled with a
delicate green. Her side saddle, with the
crimson plush seat, and bright brassy fix
ings, always hung in the best bedroom,
and in the night its dim outline would
look like the horned head of buffalo. 1t
was not for me, Johns young wife,
Chatty, to say that its time-honored place
should be vacated, and that it could hang
in closet or in the attic out of sight.
Great punches of dried herbs hung from
the ceiling in the kitchen, while the very
choicest and most aromatic depended from
the walls of the sitting-room. Piles of
bed-clothes reared themselves like things
of life, from different and conspicuous
Al