Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1873-05-08
WOODSTOCK, VT., THURSDAY, MAY 8, 1878.

wife's sister, who was anxious to Sc
cure place. BY the time Mr.. Whit
aker had reached Denham the nice
girl had engaged to teach district
school. Arrived at home he found
that Mrs. Goodman had sung to Su
san the praises of a certain "wldow
woman" on Stony Hill Mr.. Whit
aker HES him to Stony Hill to find
! the widow gone to keep house for hel
brother
81 declare" said Mr.. Whitaker to
Susan, as he returned. girlless and dis
pirited, from his long drive, 81 be
lieve if / wanted wife I could get
six easier than | can one girl! y
"Don't Try any more, father" said
Susan. 'We can get along somehow.
Ned and I can do the work"
"That's so,' said Ned. "We'll
make bully team
"Don't be so low, Ned" said Susan,
who had undertaken the somewhat
discouraging task of ''elevating" Ned.
Boys resent 'elevating," especially by
their own sister, and accordingly Ned
rater exerted himself to be slangy in
Susan's presence.
But now a feeble wall was heard
from the bedroom where poor Mrs.
Whitaker lay, fevered and helpless, on
her restless couch.
"You must get girl, father, she
demonstrated ''Susan can't do the
work. 1t will kill her. She isn't
strong enough, and beside she doesn't
know how. Oh dear, if I could only
get up and take hold myself! I cant
be reconciled to lying here when
there's so much to dO!
TO soothe his wife, Mr.. Whitaker
promised to try once more, and finally
one night drove into the yard in tri-
umph, seated on small trunk, the
owner of the trunk, an actual "girl,'
in propria persona, handbook in hand,
sitting in state on the seat behind
him.
The new girls name was Luna,
"pale Luna" Ned called her. She
was tall and bony, wore her hair cut
short in the neck, and rejoiced in a
bass voice that was perpetual sur
prise in the family. Luna soon de-
veloped ways that, if not "dark," were
decidedly uncomfortable. Ned always
declined pie, after he once saw Luna,
as she cut each piece, drawing the
knife blade through her mouth to
"cleanse" it. No matter what she
had previously been doing, she stir
red Mrs. Whitaker's beef tea with her
finger without going through the
ceremony of washing her hands, and
tasted it freely with the same spoon
soon offered the invalid. She told
Susan she liked to make bread, it
takes the grind off your hands SO
nice" Under her administration. the
appetites of the Whilakers dwindled
alarmingly. Susan, who saw the
most of Luna's cookery, lived entirely
on crakers.
When Mrs. Whitaker heard that
Luna prepared the potatoes for din
ner in the wash-hand basin, and put
the best tea-knives soaking in the bot
tom of the pan while she did the 9TH
er dishes-tea-knives whose glossy
handles were Mrs. Whitakers pride,
her Indignation knew no bounds.
81 won't have her in the house
another minute! can't sleep till she
is out of it! The idea! My best
tea knives I've been so particular
never to damp the handles, and always
kept them but away in tissue paper,
and now they're ruined! Do get her
out of the house before she spoils
everything in it, and poisons us all !"
Luna went. Susan cleaned up the
house, and prayed, whatever other
calamity might be in store for them,
they might at least be spared another
girl. Susan was much better now
Her mothers illness had taken her out
of herself, and obliged her to make
some exertion. She went into house
work with will, eqully pleased and
surprised to find herself really good
for something. Ned helped her all he
could, and novel were some of the eX-
periments of what Ned called the
"new girl"
One day Susan decided to have
baked beans for dinner. She put
something like two quarts boiling.
BY and by, looking in the pot, she
was dismayed to find it full of beans
to the very brim. She took out near
" half, but still the beans continued