The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1873-07-18
John Jones New Leaf.

1t was dreary kitchen-the walls
were dirty and smoking, the breakfast
dishes stood on the table in the middle
of the floor, the cooking stove was open,
with kettles and pans on it, and cold
ashes on its hearth, its sooty plates
awry, a pot of dish-water standing on
top Of the stove, and the broom and
poker and tongs lay just where the little
riders had left them when they were
called to prepare for school. Johnny
had gone Off crying, and his whine could
even then be heard coming up the hol-
low, i'm the direction OF the school-house.
The milk had not been strained, and the
flies were buZZing about it as they sat
on the edges of two brimming pals, sip
ping and rubbing their hands together in
u satisfied way. The baby was teeth
ing, and cross, and the one pair of hands |
that could have brought order out of
this disorder, were busy trying to soothe /
it.
Is itany wonder that tears were i'm the /
mothers eyes, as she cuddled her baby /
TO her bosom, and walked across the /
floor trying TO still its cries?
ooh, dear, what life! what a lifel' |
said She 81 try to be patient and make /
the best of it, but il does seem so hard" |
Just as the babe was growing quiet, and /
its little blue hands had fallen listlessly |
upon its bosom, a shadow fell across the |
doorway, and the husband entered, say
ing, "Jane, can you tell me what the |
children did with the hatchet yester- |
day ~
at was out at the rock, behind
JOhnny's wagon, last night" said she, |
speaking low, and gently laying the |
baby down in a bed that had not been |
made up yet.
"Seems To me you're 4 good while
gettin' your chores done; you haven't
the knack of Citing along like Mrs
LeavOndyke-her work is done up long
ago, and she's busy in the garden. Tell
you, she's a nice garden; don't look
much like Our'n; you don't put the
time on our'n that She does on her'n."
ooh, JOhn,n said the little woman,
slipping back her sleeves and tying on a
big apron, and trying TO keep her face
turned away to hide the gathering tears,
''with four little children, and the baby
sick; and the three cows to milk and
calves To feed, and hands to cook for,
and all the other work to do, ! only
wonder that | get half my chores done
in a whole day.
"Well, I'm sure don't see how it is"
said he; "my mother had ten living
children and she managed to get along
first rate, and do all our own weaving,
bOrs. You have more room than She
had, and you don't have to carry water
forty rods, like she did-here it is, right
at the foot of the hill; and you never
have 10 cut your own firewOOd, unless il
is in the midst of harvest, and think
you shouldn't complain. If there is
anything / hate to hear, it is a growl-
ing, whining wife. Now, have to be
out Of doors all the time, no matter how
the sun shines, or how cold the wind
blows, while you are i'm the shade and
cOmfortable-if you only knew it. All,
you have an easy time of il, you women,
if you only knew il; so, cheer up. /
married you for helpmate, don't you
know? The girls will he big enough in
three years to help you, and then you
can take times easier, and maybe
by that time the bottom farm will he
paid for, and we'll be able TO ride i'm a
carriage, like the LeavOndykes do.
''How long since you brought in this
waterw said he, as he took a drink
from the tin dipper and finding it not
fresh, he squirted it out cOolly right on
the floor among some pans that had
slipped down of a shelf.
As he took the hatchct, and started
out to the wagon to fix the hay rigging
on il, he said, 'Jane, if you can as well
rs not, s'posin' you have some of them
new beans that grow in that fur lot for
dinner"
"WelI, I'll try" said she, hopelessly,
as she slipped her shoes of so she might
step softly and with more comfort. All
we working women know what a task il
u TO put disOrdcred kitchen into neat
ness, especially when little children have
been about. First she strained the
milk, saving out quart, with which to
mix bread, for the yeast was set the
night before, and had been bubbling two
hours she mixed it and set it i'm the
warm sunshine, then started fire and
made feed OF skim milk and meal, for
the noisy, frolicsOme calves that ran in
the dooryard. Then she swept and
picked up playthings after the children,
hung up their coats and aprons, and set
their old shoes away, and moved their
sleds and wagons and hoops from about
the doors.
While the dish-water was heating she
hurried up stairs and made the beds
then washed the dishes, and went down
cellar and skinned the milk. There
WAS cream enough for a churning, and
the churn was scalded, and then left
with pail of cold water standing in ii,
so as TO be fresh and ready. BY this
time the baby woke and cried, and the
tired little mother was compelled to sit
down and take him in her sheltering
arms.
In half an hour or so he was ready TO
Slt down on the floor on a quilt, and she
ielt him long enough TO carry three or
iour pals of skinned milk to the pigs
Two Two pailsful at a time, and she went on
Ihe run She always fed the pigs: when
she asked her husband once to carry fbe |
mllk 10 the pen, on his way ont TO
work, he said, THAT belongs To a wom- |
ans work. man whose name il ont for
commissioner shouldn't be asked to Sion
\the pigs, that's little too steep.u
IL was no trifling job to feed thosa
pigs; the pen had been made out of son,o
old house logs, and the opening thromaI,
which the pals had to be lifted bef6re
they could be emptied was so high nm
that il Just came even with her nect
and was only wide enough to admit the
pail with the bail lying down. Twice.
when she was dressed up clean, had the
unsteadily poised pail tipped back and
poured the contents upon her, from her
neck even down TO her little feet,
drenched a. by waterfall.