Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1870-06-15
MRS. THOMPSON'S WARE.
A DoMEsrIc STORY.

Mrs Thompson stood by the kitchen table
pairing potatoes for dinner. Something was
evidently wrong with the little lady, for there
was an unmistakable air Of spite" in the way
she tossed the potatoes in the pan Of cool
spring water, waiting there to receive them.
1t was sultry weather aud through the open
window came the sound Of mowers whetting
their scythes, blended with the call Of the
robin, and the faint notes of the cuckoo in
the shaded wood. But it only irritated Mrs.
Thompson, indeed everything irrtated her
that day. Looking out from the back door,
might be seen a lovely landscape with broad
reaches of meadowland fringed with grace
ful belts Of birch and softly-rounded noun
tains lifting their velvety foreheads to the
white Heecy clouds, that went slowly sailing
across the exquisite ether, like huge drifts Of
thistle-down But this also irritated her
everything could be beautiful save her life
and that was cold and rude, and barren. At
least Mrs Thompson, in the plenitude of her
present unsatisfactory mood was telling her.
self that it was.
To begin at the beginning, Jane Lawrence
had been an unusually romantic girl, aud had
gone for two years to a boarding school. She
had always fancied she would marry some
/ famous artist or scholar, who would take her
/ TO Rome and Venice, where she might live
in a perpetual dream of beauty. She 50
loved beautiful things Perhaps all women
/ do and that may be the reason so many are
I found ready to barter love for gold.
But, contrary to all her pre-conceived no.
tons, she married Robert Thompson, a plain,
practical farmer and instead Of touring il
in Italy, she went to live at the old home
stead, which had been the abode Of the
Thompsons for generations. Dreams and
reality are so very different, you see.
Robert Thompson was a working farmer
as well as a practical man, and all his people
worked His mother had worked in her day
his sisters had worked, he expected his wife
to work. She took it gleefullyi she had
not been brought up with high notions by any
means and at first the work did not seem so
much. But every experienced lady knows
how the labor seems TO accumulate in plain
farmers household as the years after marriage
90 on. There were plenty of men and boys
about, but only one woman servant was kept ;
and Mrs. Robert Thompson grew to find that
she helped at nearly everything, save perhaps
the very roughest Of the labor. In place OF
lounging in elegant foreign studios, or Gid
ing down famed canals and streams in pic
turesque gondolas she had butter and cheese
to make, and poultry to rear, and dinners to
cook in the long, low-ceiled kitchen, and the
thousand and one cares upon her shoulders
that make up busy household. Quite con-
trast, as Ihust be admitted.
With things little different, she'd not
have minded the work so much; could she
have had nice carpets and tasteful furniture
and books, and picture or two, and flowers
The home was so very hard and practical
and its surroundings were getting so shabby
At first she had not noticed this or cared Tor II
but every year, as the years rolled on, made
matters look dingier. Old Mrs. Thompson
had not cared to be smart and nice; Robert
had not thought about it. And what though
he had tit is only natural for men TO assume
that what had done for mother would do fol
wife.
The matter to-day-which had put her Sc
very much cut-was this. A sewing club hat
recently been established in the neighborhood
There was much distress amidst the poor la
borers' wives and families, and some lade'
with time on their hands set up sewing
club to make a few clothes for the nearly
naked children. The farmers wives had JOIN
ed il; Mrs Thompson among others; they
met at stated intervals, taking the different
houses in rotation; dining at home at II
assembling at | o'clock, and working steadily
for several hours. 1t was surprising how
much work got done how many little petit
coats and frooks were made in the lonl
afternoons. In less than a month it would b.
Mrs. Thompson's turn to receive the compan.
for the first time-and she naturally begaI
to consider ways and means. For they me-
for an entertainment as well as for sewing
tea in the afternoon, grand meal later whel
the stitching was over
What was Mrs. Thompson to DOT Ihel
stock oil plates ana uishes consis'eu oi lc'
odds and ends of cracked delf, that had one
been kind OF mulberry color Sho had Ion!
wanted some new white ware; she wanted |
more than ever now. Grover the Keeper o
the village crockery shop, had lovely set To-
sale, white, with delicate sprlg oil convol
vuli and fuehslas, looking every plt as goo'
as real china. Mrs. Thompson had set he
heart on the set, and that morning ha'
broached the subject to her. husband -
What's the matter win 'ne oiu ones
asked he.
Look at them" she answered. :" They
are frightfully old and shabby"
81 dare say the food will taste as well OF
them as off Growers set Of white ware"
But there's not half enough We have
as good as none left"