The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1876-05-05
CHAPTER XXI


debts that Madge had contracted when
employing the men TO harvest the grain
had not been paid, and their aggregate
was large sum in the estimation of an
economical man who had recently spent
the whole of his reserve fund in a spree,
and finished up with the proceeds of an
enforced sale of one of the horses COM
prising the family team.
"Madge did the best she could, I'm
sure, JASON" said Mrs. Andrews, tim
idly.
f'TBe best she could E' answered her
lord, contemptuOusly. "There isn't
any need of half the hands she hired.
pve harvested a bigger crop by myself,
many a time"
"But say she did the best she couldn'
reiterated the wife.
"lVomdn! do ye kRoOO a0bo ger talk
IN to ?" and the master of the Morrison
homestead indulged in pitiful air of
attempted dignity that was intensely
disgusting.
"Yes, do ~ replied the wife, for the
first time since their marriage daring to
resent his impertinence. "Pm talking
to whisky -guzzler, who left the mother
of his own child to die but for the care
of others! Pm talking with a worth
less, fault-ffuding SOt-a poor, misera-
bic, degraded apology of manhood, who
shall mend his ways, or, 10y the Eternal,
he shall go one road and another ~
"Highty-tighty! but here's richnessu'
exclaimed the head of the family, with
a grin; for, to do him justice, he was
rarely quarrelsOme, the few really ugly
exhibitions of temper to which he had
given vent in their married experience
having been mainly directed to Madge,
who had always provoked him by her
unanswerable sarcasm.
"I'm in sober earnest" " said Mrs. An
drews, who never befOre-at least, never
since Madge had been old enough to do
the heroic for the famiIy-had allowed
herself TO make stern resolves, much
less abide by them. al mean just what
l say. You and I are to go two roads
henceforth, if ever you indulge in an
other drunken spree. Another thing,
sir ! You are not to grumble at what
has been done during your absence. II
you had remained at home and taken
care of the crops and your own young
ones, as any decent brute would have
done, we would not owe dollar for har-
vesting, and we'd have team, too
Now, Jason Andrews, hearken: Never
again will consent to live the life of 6
drunkard's wife p'
'I'd like to know how yer goin' tC
help yourselfr' exclaimed the head o
the family. "pve never abused ye, no
done the least thing the law will blam,
me for. A man has a perfect right t.
take sprees, and do what he pleases will
his own"
fright, indeed, Jason! What woul,
you say if I should go off and ge
drunk ?"
''But you're d woman"
"And being a woman, and a weake
vessel, suppose must be too strong t.
indulge in the weakness which is excus
able in men ~
"Jes' So"
"But don't see it so, Jason. YOU
better look sharp"
These threatenings were doubtles
very unwomanly, according to the oil
thodox standard, but they were Gel
tainly very natural. Though, whe
the fact was bruited through the neigh
borhood that Mrs. Andrews had vic
lently assailed her husband with bite
reproaches, and thereby driven him W
deeper into intoXication, the worst ceI
sors in the community were wivC
whose husbands were sober men, an
who, because of this, knew nothing
the trials of a sister who had bee
driven to desperation by neglect an
drunkenness.
In order to settle his authority an
headship beyond dispute, Jason sent
The Falls by passing teamster for
keg of whisky, paying roundly theref,
in the wheat which Madge had MAJ
aged to save, and when the bevera.
came, and was hidden away in the o
log barn, and the ruler of the househo
had imbibed freely and gotten glorious
drunk, the scene that followed bafd
all description.
Let us draw a veil over the househo
chickering's, the terrible, soul-sickenir
effects of which, though witnessed t,
often by the little children of an il
starred union, are mercifully hidd,
from the mature minds of the outsi,
world. Mrs. Andrews found to her co
that all her heroic declarations of ind
pendence but added fresh links to Il
chains of her bondage; and after such
mental struggle as none can realize e
cept they are called to wade through d
black shadows of a bondage again
which their very souls rebel, and w
yield to duty, not for their own sal
but for the sake of helpless little on
whom Providence has cast adrift, uni