The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1873-07-10
Working and Resting.

NJohn, wish you would call "a
Mrs. Elynn's on your way to town
and ask her to come next week and
help me clean house. It's getting
pretty late, and don't like to put il
off SO long,"
The man took a step or two forward
then turned toward the tall spare, hol-
low-eyed woman, who was his wife,
and answered: (: as it really neces-
sary, Susan ?''
A glance around the room was hel
answer. an faist. @
'Let it go this fall, - said the man.
"I'm sure it don't look very bad.
"Oh, John !! the house is dreadful
dirty. Look at the walls and win
dows."
"Poohl I see dirtier ones every
day. Then, as if another thought
had struck him, he said Couldn't
you do part this week and q part
next ?''
az don't know. Perhaps sou
The answer came in discOuraging
tones, and the churning was contin-
ued in nervous, spasmodic jerks.
The man saw her discouraged look,
and said, as he went out :-"Well, if
you must, L reckon 1 can let her
know"
81 don't see how it is,n said he, So
liloquizing,as as he trotted his horse at a
slow rate along the winding prairie
road. stI can't see how it is that Su-
san thinks she must hire so much
done. Looks like she ought to be
able to do all she has to do. True, in
harvest time 1t comes little hard for
her. / hire three or four men then,
that makes more cooking, but then
Pve heard wimmen say they'd as soon
cook for six as two. Now, there's my
mother she used to cook for eight or
Ten men in harvest time and had sew
en- children to do for. We've only
four youngsters, and don't milk half
SIS many cows as father used to. But
L reckon the wimmen them days were
made of better stuff than nowadays.
Get up, Dobbin; pve hired q heap of
work done for Susan this year. She
had help when we killed hogs, and
when she was sick and Mary Gilman
came and stayed two weeks, and I
had to give her five dollars and her
board. I Ieoaldint very wen afford it,
either, for my mowing-maehine must
be paid for this fall, and I want to buy
some more stock too, this fail, and /
must have q corn-planter next spring.
But here, if l havn't passed Mrs.
Flynn's and didn't stop. Git up Dob
bin." se4 ~
What was the hoIlOw-eyed, tired
looking woman thinking of all this
time? Thinking Of She had no time
to think of anything bat work. The
churning was not done, the breakfast
dishes were unwashed, the milk was
not skinned, the weeks ironing
stared her in the face, and last but
not least, was the little one Juggling
for nourishment But ii does not
cry, so she keeps on at the ehurning
until the little ones patience is ex-
hausted, sRd its screams are heard
above the slash, dash, slash of the
churn. The mother can no longer re-
sist-baby must be cared for though
all else go untouched,
She was naturally q tidy woman,
and as she looked around upon the
untidy house she grew nervous al
most to despair, and the tears fell fast
upon the baby's face at her breast.
Oh, how welcome are these silent
visitors when the heart is overbur-
dened by grief or trial They seem to
be the rivers that wash our hearts
from selfishness.
Mrs. Wilton wept long and bitterly;
but when the tears were wiped away
so also was her burden of toll and
care, and tenderly kissing her babe
she laid him in his crib, and went
about her work cheerfully, If not con-
tented. She possessed cheerful dis
position naturally, but she was not
stranger to those hopes and aspira-
tions that come to US to cheer our dis
content She loved beautiful things.
She loved nature, and longed Tor q
stroll over the plairie tnat lay broad
and bright around her. But she found
very little encouragement for luxur-
les, even the luxury of ramble out
of doors. ,-. -fw
Her husband was sordid, money
loving, money-getting man, who saw
no use for anything that there was no
money in. He knew all the ways and
means of money getting, and money
keeping. He had taken his wife from
a loving home in an Eastern State,
and made for himself a home on the
prsiries of the West. He was deemed
q very shrewd man by the neighbors
around. He knew when to buy stock
and when to sell. He knew when a
piece of land was worth buying or
selling, and was always getting SONS
"good chance" His wife had long
ago found out that money was his
idol, and everything must be sacrI-
feed to it-eYen herself, she some
times thought, when, with aching
head and tired feet, she had sought
her pillow. Thus the years had gone
by, until few would recognize in the
hollow-eyed, sunken-cheeked, prema-
turely old woman, the fresh, rosy girl
John Wilton had brought there eight
years before.
Mrs. Wilton did not ask her hus-
band if he had stopped at Mrs.
FIynn's; she supposed of course he
had; and the following week she
watched every day for her expected
help. Watched but not waited, but
as the hours went by, she began the
task and kept at it until it was done.
Mr.. Wilton pretended not to see all
this, He kept aloof as much as possi-
BILE, so as to avoid any explanation he
might be called upon to make: but
when alone with himself, he said:
Well, Susan is getting along nice
ly, after all. She'll have the house
shinin' again Saturday night, and
then I'll just give her the money I'd
had to pay Mrs. Flynn. It'll go
toward buyin' the winter things for
the family" and he gave the we'll
filled pocket-bOok a loving squeeze.
Saturday night found the house all
smiling, as Mr.. Wilton had prophe-
sled, but Mrs. Wilton looked more
tired and worn than ever. 1t had
been a hard week for her, aud even
the clean house was hardly q recon-
pense. Bet Mr.. Wilton felt satisfied.
Strange that he could not perceive the
odor of the essence of life in the shin
ming windows and whitened walls
but he only said as he glanced about
him