The Portland daily press., 1871-05-06
LINN BLYTHE.
. s..-x of a New England Farmhouse.
fFrom the Springfield Republican,

East mountain just as the clock struck four.
The great squares Of light lay out on the
kitchen floor, and across them stepped Mrs.
Samantha Pike, walking briskly, and talking
In default Of other audience to herself.
-Four o'clock. Why upon arth don't tnaf
creeter git up! She'd lay abed till noon n 4
s'pose, If didn't start her. 1t does pea no a
how lazy some folks be. Laziniss am one
INV faults. bless the lord. I've got my fallins',
hut that AIM one of 'em. There was my SIS
ter Carline now, Carline she
Linn? Lynn Blythe
II was n drowsy little answer that came
sliding down a dusty sun.bar.
sWelI. well. Come. Time you was up'n
dressed. Fly round N be spry now. Mind:
'Yss,'m,' again, and q tangle of heavy hair
stirred up there among thin pillow and coarse
bed cover. Then tive hands, long, slender,
and much tanned, were raised to part away
the falling locks, Two sleepy eyes looked out,
and little figure sat upon the bed side.
% dear. Pm sleepy moaned the child, but
q sudden thought came to her and she sprang
up and sat busily about her dressing
A bare attic room, without plaster or palnt.
There was about it, also, in spite OF open WIN,
dOws, musty odor born OF DRIED herDs, 0ia
feathers. and spider's webs many time multi.
pliod, an unfurnished, unlovely room. And
yet many q child has slept and waked, pii.ne
and happy. in rooms more rough than this.
But little Linn Blythe, in spite Of her name,
was neither happy nor blithe, because where
she was, love was not, and that was why, as
she looked about, this summer morning, 30
undesirable, so unhappy place.
swell. You've got along at last, have YET"
Mrs. Pike was trying salt pork over the
stove, and she turned with this greeting to
Linn as the child entered. II Linn had stO cd
less in fear of this great, red faced woman,
she might have called the old clock to witness
that 1t was but ten minutes since she had
been chilled. But, in this lonely farm. house,
Mrs. Pike was as absolutely monarch as The
Grand Mogul in the midst of his slavas- She
was the court beyond which there was no ap-
peal, her service, the service from which there
was no discharge. And, in the case OF such
greeting as this, the utmost stretch of courage
which Linn could conceive, was the reply,
Meekl. spoken.
II tried to be quick"
"Tried to be quick, did you? Well, you
must learn 10 pnt on yer clo'es in jiffy, N
not he all day bout 1t. 1t never takes me
more'n Ave minutes to git dressed. Not a
Grain over five minutes". Mrs. Pike raised
ing fat in the frying pan. Bot she raised 1t
unnecessarily high as she snapped out.
swell, come nowl Fly round, seeing you've
got here. There g work to be done in this
house to day can tell ye. Them city folks
air comm on the arteeno0n sstage. So, be
lively now. Put a stick O. wood int the stove
can't you. An mind you shet the damper n
not let the heat all 60 up chimbley. Woods
worth money, l tell ye. ar ther amt no sort
O. use tryin' to heat up all out doors. Well,
now Sorfnl heart, what have you contrived
to dot Well, it's yer own concern"
1t was huge stick, and Linn was a small
girl for her twelve years. In her nervous
haste, confused too, by those sharp, watching
eyes, she had given the wood a wrong turn in
the stove, land crushed her slender fingers
against the red hot iron. She made ho out.
cry. Only, as the purple blood settled under
the bruised nail her face turned quite white
with-which wasit? The pain OF the smart
ing, throbbing wound, or the smart and sting
OF the words? .ts
"Never mind. You must learn to look ar.
ter your own fingers. dunno who's goin' to
take care of 'em Of you don't. Take care O
yeself or nobody'll take care of ye. That,
my 'xpereuce. Remember that"
Poor Linn. She was in no danger Of for
getting it. "Take care of yerself er nobody'l
take care of ye." In this was wrapped up the
whole philosophy of life for Mrs. Samantha
Pike, and she dnned the same into the ears
of her charge until the child had learned to
expect 1t in the case OF any accident, whatev-
der, to herself The truth upon her side,
doubtless Mrs. Pike had, and the wisdom OF
this world commends those who do well for
themselves. But none the less for the little
girl moving about the great kitchen, and lay
ing the table that June morning, it seemed a
very dismal outlook upon the great world
and the life only just begun, to know that the
trouble of it all must be met alone. She was
too young to explain to herself the full selfish
ness OF the grabbed wOman's maxim. She
only knew that 'nobody'll take care Of ye''
meant to her something so hard and so lone
"Nobody will, nobody does. o dear" and
she chOked down something hard in her
throat. Aunt Samantha would sc0ld her if she
cried. So she wiped the tears with the cor
ner of her apron, when she went into the
pantry for dishes, and came out trying to look
bright, but all the while saying to herself,
Nobody to take care OF her, znu she HASN'T
any mother, and :her father is dead. and old
Tabby. o, I wish she was dead, too"
Linn had way OF plying herself as
night, after she had gone to bed in the dark,
up in the attic, she cried her fill among the
pillows, and told ever to herself the dismal
tale of her misery, as though she had been q
second person, and Linn Blythe a child whom
the world was using badly.
The pork and potatoes were fried and eaten,
Elder Pike had gone into the field, and the
work of the day had begun in earnest. Mrs.
Pike was large and strong woman. So far as
boing tired bodily went, she seemed to know
nothing of the kind. But Linn knew, she
had good reason to know, that the harder the
mistress of the house worked the more un-
amiable she grew, and the more impossible it
became to please her. All that long day the
child ran up and down, and to and fro, for her
"children save sight O. steps" Mrs. Pike had
remarked once in Linn's hearing. And a
sight o. steps" she must have saved that day.
How her feet ached, and her head, and her
heart, poor child, as the day waned, and the
hot afternoon sun poured in at the curtainless
west windows, and as Mrs. Pixies shrlll re-
proofs kept time to the ticking of the mum.
my-like clock in the corner. e
Bring me pie plate, Lindy. Not that A
hlue-edged one-don't you know? Docs
seem as though you never would remember,
Sometimes l think you hain't got quite com.
mon sense-you do act like half-witted
child; l would be an idiot an done with it.,
pears to me-" 1853 IA y
An idiot! Perhaps that was the reason
they all found fault with her so, thought Linn.
There was an idiot in the neghborhood, a
gurgllng, helpless, trighttul specimen of hui
man life. Perhaps-she couldn't tell-per-
haps abe looked to other people just as Jacky
King looked to her. Was that the matter, she
wondered, and just then her thoughts were
hIOkou III upOQs
"Now what are you doin' stamina there
gawpin'? See here, this plate amt washed
clean, or wiped dry. Look" Mrs. Pike
carried the plate to the window, and point
ca to little drop of water, dried upon
the smooth surface. Then she rubbed her
red finger round and round, pointing to the
mark lett behind. -
"3rease, do you see? You'd oughter be
smut anu up in yoar room all day for that. 1
bllsve you never will learn. Now run, and
will you."
Never was there, since the days of the
Egyptian bondage such making bricks with.
out straw, as Linn's dish washing. Many a
winters day she had washed the family
crockery In the unfinished back room, the air
20 cold that the water froze on the plates be.
fore she could wipe them, not allowed soap or
rlnslng water, her very washing water meas
ured and limited-becausc, fOrsooth, soap
brought money, and it took wood to heat wa.
Ter. Under such rules az these, having the
care OF the faulty crockery and then punish
ed TOR the first drop Of water, or the first
shade or soil left on plate or bowl!
Does any one think this is tedious matter?
Perhaps 80. But it's real. 1t happened once,
Its like may happen again. 1t is not for
children 1t is told but for those who have
care OF them. For tell you there is no sla-
very ON earth like the slavery of a child to a
hard grown person. That lonely farmhouse
was the world to Linn Blythe. Outside there
might be happy places. But she had never
Besn them. She knew nothing about them,
Had she known, Mrs. Pike might have walked
some morning to find her "help" gone. But,
as 1t was, the child had but to stay there day
after dav work on and suffer ION. Mrs. Pike