Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1873-08-22

she strained the milk, taking out a
quart, with which to mix the bread, for
the yeast was set the night before, and
had been bubling two hours; she mixed
it and set it in the warm sunshine, then
started fire and made feed of skim
milk and meal for the noisy, frolicsome
calves that ran in the door yard. Then
she swept and picked up playthings al
ter 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 dishwater 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 churning, and
the churn was scalded, and then left
a pail of cold water standing IL it, so as
to be fresh and ready. BY this time
baby woke and cried, and 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
sit down on the floor on quilt, and she
left him long enough to carry three or
four pals of the skinned milk to the
pigs-two pailsful at a time, and she
went on the run. She always fed the
pigs when she asked her husband once
to carry the milk to the pen, on his way
out to his work, ne said, "That belongs
to woman's work man whose name
is out for a commissioner should not be
asked to slop the pigs-that's a little
too steep"
1t was no trifing job to feed those
pigs; the pen had been made out of
some house logs, and the opening through
which the pals had to be lifted before
they could be emptied was SO high up
that it just came even With her neck,
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 ber, from her
neck even to her little feet, drenched as
by waterproof
Withal the little. mother was quite
patient, and almost every day could her
voice be heard, even down to the lower
field and the school house, singing, "a
charge to keep have;" or "God moves
in mysterious way"
But before another year change
came. The strong, hard man, her hus-
band, was stricken down with typhoid
fever, and for long, weary weeks he lay
balancing between life and death. His
recovery was very slow, and his confne-
ment irksome no prison walls could be
gloomisr than were the home walls that
held him prisoner. Day after day the
ceaseless patter Of his wiie's patient lit
tie feet fell upon his ear he could hear
them up stairs and down, now here, now
there her voice always kind and tender,
her hand ever ready to minister to her
dear ones, her word full of consolation,
and love and cheer. John Jones was
not wholly unimpressible; slowly the
scales fell from his eyes, the light came
and he was as one born into a higher
and better life. He drew his bony hand
across his eyes, often the sobs made him
catch his breath suspiciously, and he
marvelled much that he had walked be-
side this little woman for years and not
known that he was mated with an angel
unawares His voice grew softer, ten.
derer. his great, taIony hands touched
her forehead and her hair lovingly al
would woman's-touched her as though
ne was afraid she would fade away into
white mist.
Weeks afterward, when he was ablt
to ride out, the old whimsical buggy
that had done good service in the days
of his church-going parents, was made
comfor able by soft wooden blanke
and an armful of sweet-smelling GA
straw. John didn't tell where he wa
going, but he looked wise, and his moutl
had perky look about the corners tha
seemed to say Just le' me alone;
know what I'm about"
1t was evening when he came home
He was still wise as when he went away
His cup of hot tea was waiting, and hi
toast, and the tender little pullet friec
nice and brown. He seemed really hap
py-jolly. He trotted the baby on hi
foot that night, and he called his wifi
Jenny, as in the days when he won her
and he let Johnny play horse with hi
boots, and there was such a contented
rich man expression on his face that hi
} wife could not help wondering what ha
made such change in him.
/ The next morning the crazy old ri
/ was called out again, and the soft blank
ct spread in it, and John Jones took th
lines in his emaciated hands and drov
| off in the same direction as he did th