The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1878-12-27
NJ i 8 @ ellane o. us.
Did They Know or Not =!

"I'm not going to tell him, if he don't
know it," said Mrs. Pratt. "There now !
Not word shaved for him for thirty
years. Made his shirts, washed and ironed
them, cooked and scrubbed, MIXED the
cows, fed the chickens, dried the apples,
preserved the fruit and sold it to the deal
ers, kept the store in butter, and brought
up half the animals on the place by hand
as well as my ten children, and if he don't
know haven't bonnet to go to church
| i'm, shan't tell him. He takes the money
/ earn and puts it in the bank, and asks me
if can't get along little more economi-
cally, and | never have help but a rough
girl. And such a bonnet as that nv
| best !"
She tossed the fusty looking article to
which she alluded into a corner as she
spoke, and left it there.
six boys, too" said she. "Not one of
them care-not one. A girl would have
known, I'd wish I'd had girl, if women
had not so much to BEAR" and burst into
tears and cried comfortably for, at least,
half an hour, after which she went to
work at the Christmas mince pies and crul-
lers.
1t was a holiday afternoon for the men
and boys. Mr.. Pratt had gone to bank
the butter money. He had taken Sam,
Jack, Ben, Bill, Moses and Aaron in the
wagon, and as they drove along he was
thinking what good wife he had, though
he really did not know that she was his
bonnet like a market-woman's head-pad,
for her only one.
"Yes, mar is a trump, boys" he said
| ~ At
in forty dollars to-day; butter money. She
made. She's kept the machine goin'.
boys. l tell you, / sot heaps by your
| mar"
The boys all grunted favorable respon
SEES, praises without words. Aaron the
youngest, alone spoke
She'd orter hev Christmas. I see Ben
Snow agoin' to town to get his mar a
| Christmas"
"Want to know |" said the senior Pratt
"Well bows. Aaron is right. I'll get your
mar a Christmas. You've all got your
wages from me Suppose you, each of you,
get her Christmas"
Again all the Pratts grunted in the af-
frmative, and then the subject was drop
ped, and they talked about other matters
until they got to town. There they sepa-
rated, but each having transacted their
special business remembered the Christmas
present.
Old Slas Pratt, roaming up the Bowery,
looked into the windows. "What did
women like ?" he asked himself He didn't
know the purpose of half the things at
which he stared. He could not afford, or
thought he could not Afford a watch be-
sides, Penelope Jane had the kitchen clock.
At last he stood staring into a window
where bonnets hung in rows and hats were
jauntily perched upon their stands, and a
young Jewess, with sharp eye to business,
opened the door, and regarding him with
hattering smiles, said:
"Will the gentleman step in? There is
no charge for showing goods. 1t is as cheap
standing in the warm store as in the cold
street, and if you want present for lady
why, what is so acceptable as nice bon
net ?"
"Why that's So" said Silas, "and III
look at 'em, if you please" And in he
walked, and after long bargaining secured
garnet cotton velvet bonnet, with cab.
bage roses and pink streamers, and what
the pretty Jewess assured him were real lace
things, for four dollars. ~ suppose M
wife has got plenty of bonnets," he said, as
he took the paper parcel under his arm;
"but they say women can't have too many
of 'em."
And away went the farmer with his par
eel.
Meanwhile Aaron had wandered into
Fifth avenue, and there beguiled by thu
CLEAN of silk and velvet into lace curtain
ed milliner's parlor, he spent fifteen dollar
on light blue silk dress bonnet, with
Marabout feather and pearl clasp, which
young sales women percbed upon he
crimpled tresses with the question:
: "Isn't that becoming hat, now ?"
"Of course mar has hats" he said t.
himself "but this is SO mighty pretty.
she doesn't wear it now she'll wear it mex
summer 2"
Late in the evening the wagon stopped
T at the farmhouse door. Supper for seve
| was on the table, and the mother was finish