Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1874-06-18
NO. 146.
#isfslla llautpas.
ISAAC HoUGHTON AND HIS WIFE.
BY LAWRENCE wIssELL.

BY LAWRENCE wIssELL.
Il believe this is the coolest morning
we've had, this winter" said Isaac Hough-
ton, as he moved his chair up to the break.
fast table.
Anew England farmers breakfast-table
is thing not to be scorned even by the
epicure. Before Isaac was thick slice
OF steak, dotted with dissolving bits of
golden butter. Little, round dough-nuts.
sprinkled over with sugar, lay like hick-
ories in the snowfall; and the "golden
sweetings" would have tempted nectar
fed Juno. A delicate fragrance issued
from the1 tin coffee pot, and the creamy
milk. filling to the brim the clear glass
pitcher, might we'll have been the envy Of
n city millionaire. On the stove-hearth
was the mince pie, warming for the morn
ing desert. The heat from the stove per-
vaded the room, and altogether the farm
er's kitchen was most inviting place on
that cold December morning.
1.-The thermometer is down to Zero"
continued Isaac, "and the trough at the
barn is almost frozen over" And he be-
gan to cut the smoking stake anticipated
with eager appetite.
Il do think you are too bad, Isaac, to
make me so much work, said his wife, as
she took her seat in front of the fragrant
coffee.
"You know that won't use the water
that has stood in the pump over night, and
yet you 90 and fill the teakettle with it,
every morning, and when get up have
to pour it all out again. t'shard work to
pump four or five pals of water. as I have
to before begin to get my breakfast"
"That's nothing but one o'your whims."
returned Isaac. 1.-The water that's stood
in the pumps just as good as any to cook
with,-it's rather warm TO drink in the
summer"
81 tell you Isaac, won't use it," inter-
rupted his wife, II know it amt healthy,
and I'll turn it out of the teakettle as often
as you put it in. But 'twould help me in
my work if you'd get up mornings and
clear the pump as your brother Sam does.
But if you don't do it l SHALL" And Susan
became slightly excited.
"Well, well, wife, eat your breakfast"
said Isaac. 1.-The frost hasn't started off
that west window yet, for all we've had
such a fire. This is pretty cold morn
ing, that's fact"
Il thought so fore I'd got the pump
cleared; up in that corner there twas
cold as a barn. You know don't dress
as warm as you do"
"Well you needn't a cleared the pump.
The water in the tea kettle was good
enough. What's the use O. being so par
ticularp"
IL tell you. Isaac, won t use that pump
water, nor any that has lain in the pipes,
over night" returned Susan, with very
decided declination of the chin. "Iknow
'tisn't healthy, and won't use it. Didn't
DR.. John say twas what allied Jermina
Perkins. when she had those dreadful
spasms? She'd used lead pipe water for
years; and the doctor in Lowell told Jim
Hoyt if he didn t stop drinkin' it he'd new
er see another well day. An then there
was Sally Schryon, her joints all swelled
up so she couldn't hardly use her hands.
and DR.. Hughes told her twas nothing
under the sun but drinking water that had
lain in lead pipe"
1.-The doctors don't know nothing bout
it, said Isaac. "Jermina Perkins had
cancer, and if DR.. Jones had let it alone
she might a been living now, for anything
| know. It's nothing but an old woman's
whim."
well, l won't use it, any way. Idon't
want my joints all swelling up so l can't
do my work"
BY this time various inroads had been
made into the eatables on the farmers ta-
BILE. Isaac, thus far, had kept his temper.
Susan, however was inclined to continue
the controversy, when Isaac interrupted
her by the inquiry
Going to let me have piece Of that
pie on the stove hearth? ?"
Susan was always glad to see Isaac eat
heartily. so she gave him large piece Of
pie.
Had a steam propeller been fastened to
his jaws he could scarcely have swallowed
it with greater velocity, after which he
rose and prepared to leave the house.
without stopping to answer his wife's
pleadings. Nov you will clear the pump
tomorrow morning, won't you ?"
just then the door banged, and Susan,
her breakfast unfinished, was left alone.
II do think Isaac is too bad" she said
to herself "But then, l won't use the
water, if l have to break my back clear
ing the pump" and so rose with jerk,
and began to clear away the breakfast,
and to make the kitchen nice and comfor-
table, and to think about dinner for her.
self and Isaac.
Mrs. Houghton was a model house.
keeper. one Hau tndt TACT SO OItcn 1Oun0
among New England women, and per-
formed the heavy work of a farmers wife
with her own hands. The amount she
would accomplish between the hours of 5
and II was wonderful. Churning. bak-
ing, ironing, and intervening labors,
would appear and disappear in as regular
order as Iago and Desdemona upon the
American stage.
She had been married twenty years be-
fore there appeared any symptoms oflead
pipe on the brain. as Isaac called 1t. Dur
ing this time, two curly-haired boys had
sat at their table and frightened their
home. But possessing much of their
mothers enterprise, they looked beyond
the little town of M and the plOd-
ding on the home farm, and, somewhat to
Isaac's disappointment, took their inner.
itance of vigorous go-a-head-a-tiveness
and left for a neighboring city. where
they were soon well established in bust
ness. @
Now it is probable that Isaac and Susan
had as much real love for each other ri
Eloise and Abelard. but it was manifest In