Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1871-12-07
everything 81 that there warn't pin

out O the way
"But you know how 'tis in parishes
there alters is women that thinks tn
ministers 8 affairs belongs to them, IN,
they ought to have the rulin' and guild
in of EN-, and If 4 minister's wife dies
there's folks that alters hes their eye
open on Providenee-lookin' out who
to be the next one.
"Now there was Mis- Amaziah Pep
peridge, widder with snappin' blacl
eyes, and hook nose-kind O. like
hawk-and she was one o them up an,
down commandin' sort o. women, tina
feel that they have q call to be seein
to everything that goes on in heparish
and specially to the minister
"Folks did say that Mis- Pipperidg
sort o. sot her eye on the parscn 70
Observation-Disclosures, Chat might hav'
been, or il might not. Some folk
thought it was very suitable connec
tion-you see she had good propert,
of her own, right nigh to the minister 7
lot, and was alters kind O. active ant
busy--so, takin' one thing with another
I shouldn't wonder if Mis- Pipperidgt
should thought that Providence
pointed that way. At any rate sht
went up to Deakin Blodgett's wife, ant
they two sort o. put their heads togeth
er a mornin' and condolin' about the
way things was likely to go Oh at the
minister's now Mis- Carryl was dead
You see the parsons wife, she was one
of them women who he'd their eyes
everywhere and on everything. She
was q little thin woman, but tough as
Ipjer rubber, and smart as a steel trap,
and there warn't hen laid an egg, OF
cackled, but Mis- Carryl was right there
to see about it, and she had the garden
made in the spring, and the med0ers
moved in summer, and the cider made,
and the corn husked, and the apples
got in the tall, and the doctor had
nothin' to do but jest sit stock still a
meditatin' on Jerusalem and Jericho
and them things that ministers think
about-but Lordy massy! he didn'i
know nothin' about where anything he
eat or drank, or wore, camefrom OF
went to-his wife jest led him round
in temporal things and took care on
him like a baby.
"Wall, to be sure Miss Carryl looked
up to him in spirituals, and thought
all the world on him-for there warn t
q smarter minister no where round.
Why, when he preached on DEGREES and
election, they used to come clear over
from South Parish, and West Sher-
burk, and Old Town to hear him, and
there was sich row O. waggins tied
along by the meetin' house, that the
stables was all full and all the hitchin'
posts was full, clean mp to the tavern,
so that folks said the doctor made the
town look like gineral training day,
a Sunday.
"He was great on texts, the doctor
was. When he he'd q pint to prove he d
jest 60 thro' the Bible and drive all
the texts ahead O. him like a
flock o'sheep--and If there was text
that seemed agin him-why, he'd come
out with his Hebrew and Greek, and
kind o'chase it round spell, Jest as We
see feller chase q contrary bell weth-
er, and make him Jump the fence arter
the rest-I tell you there wasn't no text
in the Bible that could stand agin the
doctor when his blood was up. The
year after the doctor was appointed to
preach the lection sermon in Boston,
he made such tigger that the Brattle
street church sent a committee right
down to see if they couldn' tget him to
Boston-and then the Sherburne folks,
they up and raised his salary-ye see
there amt ANYTHING wakes people up
like somebody else's wantin' what
you've got. Wal, that fall they made
him doctor O. divinity at Cambridge
college, and SO they sot more by him
than ever. Wal, you see the doctor,
of course, he felt kind o'lonesome and
afflicted, when Mis- Garry was gone,
but really, Huldy was so up to
everything about house that the doctor
didn't miss nothin' in a temporal way.
His shirt bosoms was pleated finer than
they ever was, and them ruffles round
his wrists was KEEP like the driven
snow, and there warn't brack in his
silk stockings, and his shoe buckles
was KEEP polished up, and his coats
brushed, and then there warn't no
bread and biscuit like Huldy's, and her
butter was like solid Jumps of gold, and
there waren't no pies to equal hers, and
so the doctor never felt the loss of Mis-
Carryl at table. Then there was Huldy
alters opposite to him, with her blue
eyes and her cheeks like two fresh
peaches, she was kind o. pleasant to
look at, and the more the doctor look
ed at her the better he liked her, and
SO things seemed to be goin' on quite
quiet and comfortable eff it hadn't been
that Mis- Pipperidge, and Mis- Deakin
Blodgett, and Mis- Sawin got their
heads together talkin' about things.
Poor man, says Mis- Pipperidge,
what can that child that he's got there
do toward taking the care of all that
place?' It takes mature woman, she
says, to tread in Mis- Carryl's shoes.
"'That it does, said Mis- Blodgett,'
and when things once gets to runnin'
down hill there aint no stoppin' on EN-
says she.
"Then Mis- Sawin, she took it up.
'Ye see Mis- Sawin used to go out to
dress maxim, and was sort O. jealous,
cause folks sot moro by Huldy than
they did by her. Well, says she,
'Huldy Peters is we'll enough at her
trade; neverdenied that, though do
say never did believe in her way O.
maxim button holes, and I must say,
ii twas the dearest friend l had, that [
thought Hubby, tryin' to fit Mis- Kit
tridge's plum-colored silk was clear
piece O presumption-thc silk was list
spilled, SO 'twarn't fit to come into the
meetin' honse. I must say that Hnldy's
a gal that's always too ventersome
about takin' 'sponsibilitics she don't
know nothin' about
'Of course she don't, said Mrs Dea-
kin Blodget. what does she know
about all the lookin' and seein' to that
there onght to be in guiding the minis
ter's house9 Huldy's we'll meanin'
and she's good at her work, and good
in the singers seat, but Lordy massy
she hain't got no experience. Parson
Carryl ought to have an experienced
woman to keep house for him. There's
the spring house cleanin' and the fall
house-cleanin' to be seen to- and the
things to be put away from the moths,
and then the gettin' ready for the as
sociation and other minister's meetin's
and the maxim the soap and candles,
and settin' the hens and turkeys, watch
in the calves and seein' after the hired
man and the garden, and there that
are blessed man jist sets there at home
us serene, and has nobody round but
that gal, and don't even know how
things must be runnin' to waste =
"Wal, the upshot ont was they fuss
ed and fuzzled and wuzzled till they'd
drinked up all the tea in the teapot,
and then they went down and called on
the parson, and wuzzled him all up
talking about this, that, and t'other
that wanted lookin' to, and that it was