The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1876-03-31
Mr.. and Mrs. Johns.
sKErcH ZOE soME wIvEs, HusBANDs.

"Don't know how what is ?'' inquired
his wife. ..
"Why, Mr.. Pslmer's family must be
! dreadfully expensive. There he has
seventeen hundred dollars year, and
he uses it right up, they say. But they
| keep hired girl all the time. Then
| they have three or four fires going
| through the winter, and dare say ever
so many needless expenses"
"Well, don't know, either,n respond
ed Mrs. Johns, thoughtfully, wiping
and setting away her breakfast dishes.
81 suppose they think tits wisest to take
the good of what they have now. The
comfort they get from seventeen humid
red dollars is sure, and life isn't"
'tNor health, either" broke in Mr..
Johns. 'If they should be sick, or he
should die, what would they do? For
my part, l don't feel like taking my
ease until we have enough to support
US in the most extreme case, and
think every man ought to act from this
principle. Then Mr.. Palmer takes ten
papers of some kind; and he carried
home five new, large books at Christ
mas"
Mrs. Johns mouth fairly watered at
this, as she said:
at must be so nice to have plenty to
read, and time, too. Oh, should so
| like to be able to ask in our friends
often, and let our children have pleas
ant times at home, now, before they are
grown up and away. But as it is, Pm
so hurried l can't attend to anything
that can be left out. If had a good,
strong girl to help me"
This touched Mr.. Johns in a sore spot.
"YOu wouldn't. get along any better
than you do now. There would be the
girl to wash for, and cook for, and wait
on, and you'd think then you must do
everything yourself to have it right.
Work is good for folks. feel ever so
much better when l am steady at work,
and you look healthier than dozen
women I know of who keep hired girls"
Mrs. Johns made no reply. 1t was
! best not to, for the matter had been dis
cussed times enough before, and moth
ing was to be gained by going over it
again; but her face grew forthwith into
a study for the curious, with its mixture
of hopelessness and self-reliance. She
had worked from weeks end to weeks
end many years through, hoping and
| hoping that as means increased, the
farm was paid for, and the house built,
the time would come when she could
! live easier Now she was gradually
| making up her mind that for them it
would always be work, work-getting
together for others to scatter; that all
the beautiful, softening fruits of home
leisure must be forgone. She kept
thinking to herself, if only her husband
felt as she did about it, they might all
have more time and more comfort now.
But Mr.. Johns, though he disclaimed
the idea, was fast getting in the way of
working from mere habit To be sure,
he said it was necessary that he should
save and work hard, but he certainly
had more good property now than he
used to think he must have in order to
feel easy about common expenses, still
he did not feel easy about them.
This was not strange, perhaps. He
had started out from a home of poverty
to make way for himself, when farm
produce was drug, and the poor pro-
ducer smiled humbly if his doctor or
lawyer or merchant deigned to take a
few bushels of wheat or oats, at any
price. Money was hard to get, and Mr..
Johns early learned not to part with it
lightly when once in hand. Now it had
become second nature. He was not all
pinching about great bargains; hecould
keep the "main chance" in sight, and
large sums were cheerfully paid out
where large returns were sure. But
when it came to handing over money
for the countless little needs of the
household he was disposed to cut down
and pinch to the smallest point. Then,
too, he had found that his wife, though
not very stout built body, could man
age a great deal of work; that she could
turn and twist and contrive, and with
4 very little have herself and family pre-
sentable. He often said that when one
had little, little would be spent, whereas
abundance tempted to prodigality
So it was that when after ten years.
hard work by both husband and wife,
they found themselves in a good home,
with landed investments sufficient to
fall back on in case of necessity, he still
felt like pinching. The habit was
formed, and it was hard to see the
money go for trifies. If ever his wife
had dollar of her own, it was earned
by doing some extra hard job herself,
like white washing and papering walls,
instead of hiring man to do it. With
} all her multiplied cares, she did now, as
at first, her own washing and house
cleaning, though often with as much
WEAKNESS and exhaustion as would
make her tremble for future health aud
J life, even. When sinking down to rest
!, a moment, in the midst Of these labors,
hard questions would come up. Why
did she work so? How long could she
endure it? What would become of heI
poor children if she wore herself out
, with this rough work ? and VINO would
ever appreciate it? Then would she re-
solve never to go into such work again.
Still she did undertake it again and
again, because she wanted the money
so much; and if she saved it she might
haVeit; but she did nOtnearly alwaysg get
it. She was unwise, and she knew il
herself. While there is such a cry
7 about the extravaganza of money, null
tftudes of them are doing the same
thing that Mrs.. Johns did-working
and striving continually to save, and
taking the saving out of their own lives
Mr.. Johns never had thought that
he was unkind or unjust to his wife
but he had that belief, chronic among
so many farmers, that outdoor work is
: the means and end of life-and while
they want all the comforts that flow
r from a proper performance of house
work, they seem never to think that
any money is earned by carrying on the
endless and tiresome routine, and thai
all money spent about it is lost. Little
, by little the farm.is paid for, crops are
better, and there is money to buy an.
,, other piece of land, but there is so often
r..