The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1874-05-19
MADCE MILLER.

Madge Miller, on a summer day,
Walked, as usual, her pleasant way.
Her dress was tidy, her apron white;
Her face was sweet as the morning light.
She was country village maid
Learning a country milliners trnde.
Her hands were soft her dress was clean,
And little she knew what care might mean.
She said, "Ill work at my pretty trndc.
And live happy and free old mad'
Lovers may come and lovers may go,
I'll have mono of them, no, no, no.
But suitor came, with tall silk hat
lie told her a story worth two of that
The same old story by lovers told
Since first the earth out of chaos rolled.
(Let us kindly hope, who are old and wise.
They did not know they were telling lies)
:. Marry me, darling, and you shall be
The happiest woman on land or sea
4" No longer then will you have to 90
To your daily labor through heat or snow
I" 1t shall be my pleasure, my love. my life,
10 make you best and happy wife.
VI AIRY me, and you shall never know
A sorrow or hardship q care or a woel'
Sho heard the story of promised bliss,
Sho waited, wavered, md answered ." yes"
Bright and big was the honeymoon
hut clOuded by worldly care too soon:
For housework led her its weary round
Her feet were tethered her hands were bound
And children came with their small demands
lettering. closer her hurdened hands
In her hias6and's house she came to be.
\ servant in all hut salary.
All her days, whether foul or fair,
We're endless circles of work and care
And half her nights-as up and down
She walked the floor in her dressing gown,
flushing an ailing infants screams,
Lest it should break its fathers dreams;
And wash the dishes and rub the knive.-
The oity mission of duteous wives;-
Or cuaxcd and d0etorcd q sobbing child
By the PANS of ear-ache driven Wild
Were seasons Of wakeful, nervous dread
20 if at last Ger her aching head
The angel of ,umber chanced to sloop.
lie. brought her visions Of mumpe or Group:
And She rose unres,ed, and went once more
Through the dull routine Of the day before.
Week by week did She drudge and toll,
And stew and pickle. and roast and boil,
And scrub and iron, and sweep and eook.
Her only reading recipe book;
And bathe the children and brush their lock.
Button their aprons and pin their frock-,
And patch old garments, and darn and mend
Oh weary. worry that has no end
She lost her airy and sportive way.
The pretty charm of her giriiIi. day
For how can playful fancy rove,
When once tied up to Il cooking stove!
Her face was old ere she reached her u iino,
Faded and careworn before its time
sometimes would her well-kept husband lool
lp from the pnge Of his paper OF book,
And note how the bloom had left her fiice.
And pallii thinnes' won its place
How gray had mixed with her locks OF brow
And her forehead gained a growing frown,
And say She is ugly, declare;
wonder | ever thought her fair
Season by season, year by year,
Did she follow the round of " womans II her,
Not veXing her husbands days or nighi-
by mention oi womnns rights,
Till she died at last--too severely tri,d-
Her lilc's one selfish decd-shc died;
Proud and happy and quite contcn,
With the slayish way her days were spent,
Feeling, Of course, that her life vas lost
Nj. i tug srtvants cost
All of all the sad thoughts Of women or me
The 'adlest j. this: " 1t needn't have beenn'
-Potiand T.a,cr