Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1872-11-29

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presents at intervals to his wife,
and he said: "My dear, if you want
any money all you have to do, is to
call on me-" 1t sounded beautiful
ly. What could be more generous?
Both were very much in love, and
for time all was blessed. Alas!
the most ample trosseau will wear
out. Pretty wedding frocks will
grow old. fashioned and take on a
look of antiquity. Babies are little
cherubs who need many clothes,
which they outgrow with a fright
fully rapid impunity. / pity every
body who has not baby, yet no
one will deny that it is most costly
of all Gods gifts. What suffering,
what anxiety, what money it costs
to convey it safely from the first
tooth to the last one Of all dreadful
baby diseases! Dove-eyes woke up
one day, to find that her last pretty
dress had been cut up for baby; that
the last cent of her own little bank
stock had been paid out for baby
for extra doctor visits, extra diet,
extra airings, for many nameless
little needs, which man would
never dream of, but which are no
less necessary for that. Alexis
would think them unnecessary
Dove-eyes believed them to be in
dispensable-life itself to her and
baby. She woke up to the still
more bitter consciousness that she
had not q cent that she could call
her own; not a cent that she could
spend as her own necessity or judg-
ment dictated. This, hard to any
woman, is especially SO to woman
who had always had her own indie
pendent resources, however small;
who had always had her own pri-
vate little fund on which to draw
for her own personal necessities.
Hard as it was at first, she tried to
overcome her reluctance to go to
Alexis for money. cit was foolish
and over sensitive not to be willing
to do So" she said. 1t was wrong
for her to feel as if it made her
seem like poor dependent to come
and ask her husband for what she
needed. Did she not at home work
as hard and for more hours than he
in his counting-room? Indeed, her
work was never done now. 1t used
to be she could sit in the evening
and read. Now baby cried SO she
could not even listen to Alexis read
the evening paper, but had to carry
baby off out of his fathers sight,
that his cries might not prevent his
comprchending the evening news.
Had not Alexis said that call he
had was hers?" She had tried to
think of this, and to ask for a few
dollars just as if they acere hers,
which he held in trust tor her benc-
fit. Alas! after the first or second
trying, it was miserable failure.
She had asked when Alexis happen
ed to be cross or short Of money,
and he had exclaimed: "Why, what
have you done with the last? Gone
alrcady?" She vcntured to say that
it had gone to the doctor, when
Alexis responded: 81 must say,
Dove-eyes, l think your fears for
that child make you send for the
doctor oftener than is necessary"
Dove-eyes was not sure that she
didn't. She tried to put down her
own scnsitivencss and still 90 to
Alexis for money when necessary.
But SO often there were notes (oh!
how she dreaded those dreadful
notes-they seemed to be forever
due), or he was "hard pushed"; or,
at last, he exclaimed: "Dovc-eycs,
must say that l think you spend
some money unnecessarily, and not
with the best judgment i'll the
world" AS he went over the little
account Of personal expenditures,
he found =" "Charity, fifty cents"
"Just now, charity, with us, must
begin and end at homc,' he ex-
claimed. This was too much for
Dove-eyes. The first time that he
had ever rebuked her with real
harshness. She poured floods Of
tears upon baby's head, in the little |
room aloft, where she. rocked him,
until even baby grew loving and
dumb under the piteous shower
Bath. Dove-eycs never asks Alexis
for money now for any personal
want whatever; though, in an abun-
dant home, the want of it is a per-
petual thorn in her heart. Amid
plenty, she has not penny that she
can call her own, to expend as she
pleases, without rendering an ac-
count to her husband.
Poor Alexis! He meant all that
he said in the happy honeymoon
days about Participating her every
want" He intended to do so then.
He intends to do so still. Only,
what man ever lived who, by virtue
of his masculinity, could anticipate
every need of a woman? AS a
bachelor, without an atom of per-
sonal experience in that direction,
he thought it would be delightful to
anticipate and provide for every
want of his lovely wife. How much
the most economical of woman's
needs might cost he had not the re-
motest idea.
Alas! Dovc-cyes's needs, in very
great measure, only represent the
wants of the household-th never
ending, ceaseless demands Of the
family. To supply these always,
smilingly, spontaneously, ungrudg-
ingly, under the stress Of difficulty,
of business losses and business
worry, was not so easy. What won
der that, amid all, the personal
needs of tho woman were at last lost
and overlooked altogether? Yet
never for a moment has Alexis
meant to be other than generous to
his wife. The failure lies not in
his intention but in his fashion of
carrying it out. If in the beginning
he had said: "Dovc-eyes, we arc
not rich, but, with care and thrift
and Gods blessing, we may become
so. My average income is so much
let us divide it. Here is so much
nor wear toward the payment of orr