Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1876-04-24
Poor Mary Ann.

Like many another woman, and man
too, she never knew how she loved him
till the thought of his loss came home
to her, and now she almost neglected
her children in her eagerness to serve
and to save her husband. She worked
day and night at the wash-tub. in her
intervals of nursing, to get food and fu-
el the neighbors we're all good to her,
but they were few and far between, and
petted the children, ard the doctors
wife sent them many pail of milk, but
still they fretted for care and food and
Mary Ann thought twenty times day
of the pans of creamy milk in her moth
er's dairy, the big loaves of bread, the
fresh eggs, the curds, the generous fire.
side, the great turf rick, and the full
potato bins of her old home, and how
the children would grow and flourish
there. In the midst of all came a letter
/ from home. Her father was dead. Her
mother wrote:
"Oh, Mary Ann alanna sure yer
dear fathers dead an gone all at wanst
of suddin, its appleplexy he bad Doc
thor Donovan sez an it's meself don't
know how hid have that anyway, for sor-
ra an apple there is on the farm save
an except weeny little green ones an
he'd be the fool O. the wurrld to ate
thin which be didn't at all. only just
bein' afther atm good big dinner ov
poork an cabbidge an cheese an a jug
o'poteen, an Mick Rafferty, a-dhrinkin'
that way that the father KEEP up wild
him to get his share O. the dhrop an it's
the will O. God which sure we'll all have
( to come to an the undertaken med
good job too, Heaven rest his sowl poor
man as niver thought he'd have them
black feathers over his head this day
twelmonth as liver was, which now |
write dear Mary Ann to say he wouldn't
hear to me spakin' to yez afore an now
come home you an if there's babies
which the saints sind We ! fetch 'em all
for there's dut Jack an little Davy an
me an the bit an sup ready for yez an
Dan great help on the farm intirely
so no more at prisint from yer lovin'
mother, MoYNA BLAKE"
And here was Dan could not lift hand
or foot But it was an outlook of hope
for Mary Ann, and she lived on the
promise of that letter even more than
on her daily bread. She wrote long
and loving answer back, painting her
babies, as they seemed to her, pair of
cherubs in a hovel, and promising as
soon as Dan was well and they could
raise the money they would all come
home. But Dan did not get well fast,
though the next mail brought over the
money for their passage, which ''the mo-
ther" had saved up this long while for
them.
The doctor shook his head daily over
Dan. The fever had left him, but not
all pain; be was stiff, aching, feeble.
But this was not all (: swelling appear
ed on his throat that defed the doctors
skill and puzzled his knowledge. He
wished Dan could 60 to a hospital in
New York /; and at last, after much per-
suasion, Mary Ann resolved to 60 there
with him, to establish herself near by
and take in washing till his cure could
be effected, and they could all 60 home
together.
But the New York doctors shook their
heads, too. The swelling was tumor,
and in difficult place /; perhaps it could
be removed, perhaps not; at any rate IT
must develop further. 1t might be SIX
months, it might be year, before they
could operate, and at any rate the result
would be doubtful.
MARY Ann, dear" said Dan, in a
weak, patient voice, when the doctors
had told him their opinion, ''sure I've
an idaya in me head. Its long I'm sure
to be lyin' here, and its hard for to get
work in big city like this when yt
havn't frind to spake to; an I'm
thinkin' It's betther for ye to 60 home
wild the childher, an leave me till III
be me own man agin an come to yez.
Mary Ann threw herself on his bee
in passion of tears. "0h, Dan Dan
is it LAWN me here in the hospittle al
alone wild thin docthOrs, an you me OWL
ould man ? Sure when | do that same
/ won't be Mary Ann Doyle at all a
all ?"
"But ye'll have the ehildher, dear, y
was his quiet answer.
His wife felt as if be had struck he
and she deserved the blow. "Yis, oi
Wis, I'll have the childher; but will
have me husband? Tell me that, Dar
Doyle" she sobbed.
/ Dan smiled. He liked to know a
last that his own children had not quite
1; ; superseded him in his beautiful wife
/ heart. He was a man, if he was al
) Irish laborer and human natur," a
: Mr.. Weller remarks, ''is a rum thing "
; However, he persisted in his project
,, and at last poor Mary Ann reluctant.
/ consented to take her children over, and
0 leaving them in her mothers care. com
| back to Dan till be should be well. Sh
; could not and would not leave him il
the hands of the hospital corps in 1
> strange country. She must be where sh