Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1871-10-12

over with cockleburs, his hands grimsd
with runpowaer: and helping himself 10
water from nv china hssia until be hsd
reduced its original pure contents into
compound Of mud and ink, and would
wind I'D by making finish Of my fresh
ssanssk towel. and throwing il on the bed
or a chair instead Of returning it 20 the
rsck. IS he should hsve done.
aChariie." said | one day, sancily in
wiling dose of wins; mother did, Whist
did mother used to do when you came IL,
To her room and turned il into y-sfye.
and then left il for her 10 clean up aSsint
She never let me do IL" said Charlie
with laugh. I'll tell you how she eio-
She lad tin basin on 6 shelf on the back
gaI,ery, aaL One Of tAose gTess big rolling
towels that lasted about week; and alter
her washstand was fixed up in the morn
ing. we knew better thsn to upset it can
tell you"
aVery well, sir; / intend you shall
know better than to upset mine, Ill show
you"
In fact, things had come to that psss
that had mentally resolved to show
Charlie great many things. / firmly
believed that the secret of the power that
Charles mother had exercised over her
household, and still exercised over him in
memory, lay in the fact that she made
them al afraid of her; so firmly resolv-
ed that they should all be afraid of me,
poor little mel 1t is true, was but
twenty, and she was fifty; / was but q
pocket edition Of woman, and she was q
Webster Unabridged; had little meek blue
eyes, that dropped to the ground in the
most shamefaced manner ifa body did but
look at me, and she had hard, cold gray
eyes. that not only looked straight at you,
but right through you. Still, l hoped,
notwithstanding these :.;aing drawbacks
to make myselfvery awe inspiring by dint
of grand assumption Of spirit
To put it into very plain language, l
resolved to bully Charlie of his hobby.
He had thrown his mother at my head
(fguratively speaking, Of course) until, If
she had been present in Tropria persona,
should have been tempted to- try Hiawatha's
remarkable feat with his grandmother,
and throw her up against the moon. But
as could not revenge myself upon her
personally, began to lay deep and subtle
plans for inducing Charlie to leave her to
her repose.
As the yeritable bell which, in the days
when mother did it, had acted as sort
of Gabriels trump, was still extant, minus
clapper and handle, I was enabled to pro-
vide myself with its fac smile Armed
with this instrument of retribution, / laid
me down to sleep by Charles side, gloat
ing in anticipation over my ripening
scheme of vengeance.
1t was rare thing for me to wake up
before Charlie, but did manage to do so
on the morning in question, by dint, /
think, Of powerful mental res olution to
that effect made the night before. raised
myself very softly, so as not to disturb
my husbands gentle slumbers, and, pos
sessing myself of my big bell, I laid
on with will, raising such a cater
in the quiet morning air that Charlie
fairly bounded into the middle
of the room before he in the least COM
pretended where it came from.
an the name of Heaven, Lulie, what is
the meaning of that?" he exclaimed,
looking at me as if he half doubted my
sanity.
"That's the way mother did it, Charlie"
/ replied placidly enough, and, replac Dg
my big bell on the table, settled myself
on my pillow once more, ostensibly to go
to sleep again-in reality to have my laugh
out in quiet fashion, for it was enough
to have made the very bed posts laugh to
see Charles funny look of astonjshment
and Indignation But of course he couldn't
say word, you know.
For two mornings I clattered my bel
about his precious old head, and then he
paid me 10 quit, and after that began riding
his hobby at little slower gait.
The next direct intimation he gave that
his faith in inherited ideas was growing
shaky was plaintive little request that
would not stick SO close to the old wooden
box, but give out enough coffee to ensure
him something to drink for his brest fast.
Now, / had no wish that my husband
should drink bad coffee just because Provi-
dence had seen fit to remove his mother
from this sublunary sphere: | merely
wanted to cure him of telling me how
mother did it; so as soon as he thus tacitly
acknowledged that his suggestion had not
been success, took matters into my own
hands, and p .oved to him that coffee could
be made as well by young wives as by old
mothers.
In the due revolution of the seasons
King Cotton donned his royal robes of
cotton once more, and sacks again became
the one thing needful. 1t was the very
rainiest, wettest, muddiest picking season
that had ever been seen. In pursuance of
my plan, had seven or eight women
down from the quarters, and spinning
wheel also, which was set to hummlng
right under our bedroom window.
The rainy weather had kept Charlie
in the house, and he was lounging on
a couch In my room, enjoying pleas.
ant semi dose, when the monotonous
whirr.rr Of the spinning first at
tracted his attention. "Lulie,' he asked,
rising into sitting posture, "what is that
Internal noise in the back gallery?"
"The spinning heel, Charley. They
are spinning thread to mase the sacks
with" | answered, without looking up
from my work.
"Ohp' and Charlie subsidized for while
" Aheml Lulie, my dear, how long is that
devi ish spinning to be kept up?"
Devilishl Why, Charlie, that's the
way mother did it,"
"Well," said Charlie, scratching his
head and looking foolish "Iknow she did,
Lulie, but III be COMPOUNDED If l can
stand ii much longer"
Why, Charlie, you used to stand it
when mother did II - I apcwerad mali;