The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1879-12-04


that morning, her skill in conquering
difficulties challenges admiration.
There was huge skillet with heavy
lid and short handle for baking hoe
cake, huge frying-pan, with long
handle, and without a lid, for cooking
venison steaks or bacon, heavy iron
kettle for boiling potatoes and a sheet
iron boiler for making coffee, Of which
last commodity the family, from least
to biggest, always had plenty and
drank heartily. With these simple
utensils, the mother Of the juvenile
horde Of HArdiBes had done the cooking
for her family for quarter Of a ceu-
tury, not to mention the hundreds Of
extra meals she had prepared every
year for company. But Mrs. Hsrdine
was not strong enough to wrestle with
pots and kettles now. 1t was as much
as ever she could do to tramp the
treAdles, shove the batten and ply the
shuttles Of the clumsy loom.
Practice had made Eliza perfect in
the cooking art as far as her experience
went. Aud yet, she detested cookery
In the abstract, and, had she been born
a boy, would never have been willing TO
learn the 4 b c Of making bread al
though in that event she would, no
doubt, have grown up like most other
men, with belief and no backwardness
in avowing it, that, because man had
decreed il, domestic life was the normal
sphere Of all women, and ne woman
should be allowed to doubt it.
Eliza was happy at heart that morn
ing, in spite Of her welted arms and
shoulders aud her distasteful duties.
b She BACKED her hands with the frying
! pan, aud burned her fingers with the
suffering grease, and heated her brow
almost to baking with the glowing
mammoth skillet lid. But all OF that
was as nothing to her now. What il
her work was hard, and her present life
almost unbearable? Hadn't John
Inglelon called her ddrling7 aud
( wasn't the sweet kiss Of betrothal
= lingering yet upon her lips?
Then her mind wandered from the
coarse fare and turbulent surroundings
Of her present home TO a stately man
sion, of whose similitude she had often
3 seen glimpses in her dreams-a mansion
p Of which she hoped to be mistress some
: day, with her ideal mate beside her.
Not that she expected to begin her
married life thus grandly. Her ideas
e for the commencement were bounded
by the immediate prospect Of tiny
cabin in the edge Of the senior Ingleton's
clearing, of which her lover had but re.
r Gently spoken.
( Once, only, and that was when
she passed her father, as he sat idly
, upon the steps, when on her way
r from the spring with burden of water
quite too heavy for her slender arms
r did she speak to the senior Hardine
during the preparation Of that morning
= meal.
"I shall marry before many days, aud
. then you'll have one less at home tC
, trample upon your dignity" she said
a dash Of desperation in her voice, and
an air Of defiance in her manner which
he had never before observed.
The senior Hardine was not in year
!, an old man, but neglect Of persona
cleanliness, added to hard work, strong
4 coffee and excessive tobacco, had com
=, bined to shrivel his form, coarsen hii
a hair aud beard, sharpen and wrinkle
his features aud dwarf his mind, until
though barely turned forty-six, b,
p. looked sixty. He did not reply &
n Lies threat as he sat there, but h
d gave vent to a single grOan Of despair
D. and bowed his head upon his hands IL
silence, while great tears tFickle'
r. through his gnarIed and black an'
is knotty fingers.
pr breakfasts ready. Come, mother,
said Lie. "Hurry up, or you won
,e get your share"
D. The children had already gathere
a around the table in swarm, and wer
L. clamoring for their food like so man.
pigs.
Sc Come, ole woman" ;" added the senio
" Hardine, as he took his accustOme
As seat without lifting his eyes toward tn
er loom, where the monotonous tread
Il tread, thump, thump of treadle an
batten bad suddenly ceased.
he The black coffee, guiltless OF sugar o
y cream, was served in thick stone cups
III aud for the rest there was the cor
IS bread aud potatoes and bacon this
always constituted the entire breakfa'
s. course, except on state occasions. An
a this, though there were fruits in tn
forest aud thicket that could be had f
e the gathering, and the mornings mill
IS that was put to no special use except f
the evenings regular mush, stood
n the two great wooden pals on Il
ID dresser" AS food for the flies tia
Du swarmed around and over It.
be "Mother, do htVTyH' said Liz
er again.
ok But there was no answer, thong
the clumsy loom was still.
I "Oh, my God ~ exclaimed John, j
Ii. starting up suddenly; 81 belie'
he mother is dead -
ss- The senior Hsrdine for the nonce 70
All got his dignity. He had never dream,
Ter that he was dereliet in any sense in at
nd Of a husbands duties; so he had I
.,,,,,,,,ctfons of Conscience on his IA,