The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1875-12-24

ter, early vegetables, fat sheep and cat
tie and chickens, and, for the sake of
the money gained, deny themselves and
their families that which their vitality
demands, and, deprived of, is positively
defrauded.
1t is heathenish for the man with
stalwart iron frame to expect his wife
and children always to have an appetite
for that coarse food which his outdoor
exercise makes him take in with such a
royal relish. Think of weak, nursing
mother, in hot weather, sitting down TO
dinner of old dry boiled beans, strong
smelling smoked or picked pork, corn
bread, buttermilk, raw onions, greens
boiled in with fat pork, and sausage,
saved by dint of extra ingenuity. And
yet such things are common, and the
lord of the household raves, and says
some very bitter things about "whims,"
and "want fexercise," and notions"
and then cites himself as an example of
health and hardihood and manly vigor.
Sometimes the woman physically don't
starve, but the woman intellectually is
dead, dead. Sometimes only her love
is dead, and laid aside, and covered up
with young hopes and aspirations that
were blighted long, long ago-died in
y
while the simmer of gold and the glow
of the rose were yet upon them.
| heard thin-faced woman, with sad
eyes, say the other day to her husband:
"Oh, did you know that Jack HOrner
was dealing in fresh fish this spring
Gets them right from the lake every
week. They do look so good, too !"
The bear the great big polar bear
What did he do but step TO the wall of
the old tumble-dOwn kitchen, and Just
as tenderty and lovingly as 1 would pat
the pinky curve of a blessed baby's
cheek and chin, did he pat a fitch of
old, strong, brown-smoked bacon, and
say: "Yere's yer good, fresh fish I'd
wish for nothing better ~
He did not, like a humane husband,
say: "Fresh fish why, Doll, wouldn't
ye like some? Well, dear, you shall
have 'em ! bless yer poor little thin
face ~
No; he sat down to dinner-it was as
good as the house afforded-he liked DO
tatOes baked, so she had baked them;
and he liked boiled pork, and there it
was; and there was his favOrite custard
pie, and hot coffee-everything that he
liked; but nothing was there to supply
the call made by her little frame.
/ don't know that he knew this; or, if
knowing it, he cared as much about
pleasing her as she did him. | judge
not, for he remarked Immediately after
spearing into a piece of pork, that, in
size, looked like a young pig on his
strong fork: "Why, Mariar, fresh fish
must be ten cents a pound-as high as
portland you know pound of pork
will go twice as fur as a pound of fish,
besides the good grease that's fried out
of it; and that's good fur short min, you
know-gOod to make biscuits and pies,
and to fry 'taters in, and aigs, and to
shorten the crust of corn bread. Why,
seems to me you're not very good
ecOnOmiZer, or you'd a. counted this all
up! Oh, no! no fish fur me at them
prices I'd eat my own head off fore
I'd be able to make the fust payment on
the new thrashin' machine, if | eat fish
at them high figgers ~
/ rubbed my forehead, for 1 seemed to
hear away on the mountain heights the
voice of the minister who had united
them in marriage four years ago, $50
long as you both shall live" His
words came to me very distinctly.
Bonnie Marie Bennett was a brave
| little body when she was a schoolgirl,
in Lansing; but how she would endure
slow starvation, was another thing.
l heard feeble girl, one with slow
step, and luminous eyes, and hectic dot
of crimson on each cheek, say: "If
could only eat something! But there is
nothing on our table that am hungry
for. 1 wish we had some good mutton
I always liked it so. Have we no fat
sheep, father ,"
1 looked over at him. His beautiful
flock was the envy and admiration of
all the farmers in the neighborhood.
He always took special care of his sheep
during the winter.
He hesitated; that appeal touched
him between the joints of his harness;
he felt the dull sting, without doubt
He did not trust himself to look into the
little thin, white face of his mOtherless
daughter as he replied: ave have one
very fat, nice one, but it happens to be a
eve; and you know ewes raise lambs,
and lambs are worth money"
Oh, 1 thought, what was money in
comparison with health, and strength
and buoyant step, and the red wine OF
blood in the veins What was money
to life, and life's needs and necessities
and aims and ends -?
Ways in Which the Sun Influences tn