Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1870-05-18


Z head and burst into tears.
: why, Sally-why, wife Il thought
, you'd be mighty pleased !" cried the farmer,
startled at this exhibition Of feeling.
" | am, dear" and Sally struggled TO over.
come her grief, " but such lonesome, dreari-
! some feeling came over me then, I only
thought of the dead babies in their erayesh
ou're tired and sick, Sally; fact is you
are killing yourself with work, and I've been
a fool not TO see IT,"
"I amt killing myself. John, and I'd
rather 60 on just the same. The boys are
+ grown, and there are no little ones TO take
care Of Besides, I'm used TO my own ways,
and shouldn't like any one to break into EN-.
Jerry's place is so convenient, tool know il
well it won't be hard to work there"
Still work, work it had grown to be
habit, and there was no charm that could win
her from it,
They were settled in the house--their own
house, and much of the old furniture was re-
placed by new yet so fearful was the good
wife that things would not be kept Just up to
the point where she found them, that it was
scrub and delve, delve and scrub from morn
ing till night-just the old way, only little
worse. At last nature would hold out no
longer. After enjoying the new farm for six
months, Sally complained one evening that she
felt strangely, fell down in a fainting ct, and
was taken to her bed, never to leave Il again
Poor John Grimes he bore hopeless,
melancholy face at the funeral, and his new
smart house felt like a new, smart tomb,
where the bricks, the paint and the varnish
are all fresh
IL took him two years to get accustomed
to his loneliness, and he might have lived on,
single, forever, if some presumptuous friends
had not undertaken to find him wife, and
then almost do his wooing for him.
Dolly Duncan was the party fixed upon to
Gil the place of the late Mrs Grimes She
was an active, enterprising woman whom no
one thought Of miscalling old maid though
she had turned the corner of thirty. She was
a merry, almost Jolly person, who knew how
to take care of herself, and had always de-
clared that she never wanted a husband on
her hands. She had little homestead, full
Of sunshine, and " she wouldn't thank the best
man that ever trod in two shoes to ask her to
change her condition" But somehow Dolly
did come to have the prefix Of" Mrs" before
her name. She went into the house of farmer
Grimes, and gloom took itself off at sound of
her merry laugh-at sight of her sunny face.
She must have help she said the first
thing smart, capable help. John rather
opened his eyes at this, for it seemed new
doctrine transfused into the old life, but he
was able to bear it, and forthwith q strong
girl was installed iI the kitchen. Still John
Grimes having acquired the habit, stopped
as he walked, and looked as if strange per-
plexities had got hold of him. 1t quite
startled him, one fine spring morning, when
his wife asked him to spade up bit Of land
in favorite spot, where she could plant
flowers and stranger STILL commissioned him
to 60 to the city and procure some choice
seeds and slips. Why, Sally would never
have thought Of asking him-she would have
done both, or gone without them; this he did
not say, but he kept up hard thinking, and
Dolly with a woman's quickncss, read his
thoughts
In its due season, harvesting came on.
Dolly saw what was expected Of her, and con.
cluded she wouldn't do it. In her half seri.
Gus, sportiye way, she protested that she could
not do the work for the farm-laborers who
were expected
"Why, Sally n-stammered he.
81 know" was the rapid rejoinder, poor
Mrs. Grimes always did these things, but you
know and everybody knows that she died Of
hard work. L don't want to die. want to
run my three-score and ten, and mean to,
Providence permitting"
don't know but you are right, Dolly"
said the farmer, nervously lingering his hair
but what shall do? There amt no more
help to be had"
Dolly pointed from the door. " See here,
Lob, abo I'll Al.
house on your farm doing nobody good, and
being ruined by dry rot Fit it up and let
Harry Lee take it. Give him ground for
good garden, privilege in the wood-lot, and
a small sum yearly. He will bring his wife
here, she will help me ! then let the men eat
at their table, you paying the difference of
expense, and you will save money and health,
besides having a good, reliable man always
within call"
John Grimes looked at the cute little wife
uneasily. 1t is just possibp that he drew
comparison, mentally, between the ever saving
Sally and this more expensive help-meet Az
ter that they had talks together, and he felt
and saw that Dolly had mind of her own
and she had made it up. With her merry
brown eyes upon his face, what could he do
but submit2 So the plan was put in execu-
ton.
The next move Of this adroit little woman,
was to induce her husband to procure neat
new carriage, and after that, as she couldn't
drive very well, John must go out every day
aud drive her John did not like this at first
1t broke in upon his habit of taking
snooze" as he called it after tea, but the
breakup put new life into him. 1t was
great point gained to get him into a clean
suit Of clothes for supper, and the John
Grimes sitting at the table, with freshly comb
ed hair and clean collar, was far handsomer
man than the John of old, and Dolly took
pains to tell him she thought SO.
Now for paper--was Dolly's next move
and she did pull the wires admirably. John
thought it was extravaganza. Newfangled
notions were not to his liking, and it took
long time for the cunning Dolly to gain her
point. Not but what abe might have done it
herself, but she was reforming the man--don't
you see2 Like true woman, she never gave
up, but after every failure, changed her tao
tics, and came off conqueror at last. Asplen-
did paper that treated largely of farming,
soon lay on his table, and John acknowledged
year after, to Dolly, that il was queer, but
he had really learned some things that he did
not know before. He had actually saved
twenty dollars by judicious outlay of two.
The result of all these little plans is (for
Dolly sa blooming fact to-day in spite of her
iorty-nine years. that if the reader had hap
pened to know ohm Grimes twenty years ago,
and should see him to-day, he would not rec-
ognlze him for the same man. Dolly knew
what she was about when she took upon her
self the matronly office. Three lovely chill
dren are growing up under that happy roof,
aud the farmer sees that with judicious man
agement and little more outlay he might
have bought his farm and kept wife and BARNS
for, however prettily we may talk Of the