Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1879-05-21
The Man Who Took Care of the House.

! Once upon time there was a man, who
was always grumbling and angry, and never
thought that his wife did enough work in
the household One evening, in harvest
| time, he came home and grumbled and
swore in terrible manner ''My dear
friend, be not so angry, said the old wO-
man tomorrow We will change work
will 90 out with the men and work in the
field, and you can look after the house.
Well, he liked this, and said he would be
glad to do so. Early the following morn
ing the old woman threw the scythe over
her shoulder and started out in the field
with the harvest hands to work. The hus-
band was To take care of the house He
commenced first to churn butter, but after
he had been churning a little while he be
came thirsty, and went down in the cellar
to draw some beer. While he was filling
his pitcher, he heard that the pig was in the
house, so he started with the faucet in his
hand up the cellar steps, so as to catch the
pig before he could turn over the churn
but when he saw that the pig had already
overturned it, and stood licking up the
cream that was running on the floor, he be
came desperate, forgot the beer-barrel, and
ran for the pig as fast as he could He
caught him in the doorway, where he kicked
him dead on the spot Just then he recol-
lected that he had the faucet in his hand,
but when he returned to the cellar all the
beer had already run out of the barrel. He
then went into the milk-roOm and got
enough cream to fill the churn again, and
began to churn, to get butter ready for din
ner. After he had churned awhile he re
membered that the home COW was still in
the stall and had not had anything to eat or
drink, although it was late in the day. He
thought it would be too far TO 20 to the
pasture with her, so he decided to take her
up on the roof, as there was a turf roof. on
which grew some grass. The house was
standing close to a steep hill. He thought
if he placed some pianks from the hillside
to the roof it would be easy to get the COW
up there. But he was afraid to leave the
churn, as the baby was crawling round on
the floor, and would perhaps turn it over;
so he put the churn on his back and started
out, but first to water the COW before he put
her on the roof. For this reason he took
pail to get some water from the Cistern, but
when he leaned over the edge the cream
flowed out of the churn down over his neck
and into the cistern. Ii was getting near
noon, and still he had no butter, 50 he con
cluded TO cook some mush, for which he
hung a pot filed with water on the fire.
When that was done he thought thai per
haps the COW might fall down from the rO,f
and break her legs or her neck, so he startt d
up on the roof to tie her. One end of the
rope he tied round the neck of the COW, and
letting the other end down through the
chimney fastened it round his own leg, as
the water began to boil in the pot and he
had to stir the mush. While he was doing
this the COW fell OIL the roof and pulled him
up in the chimney: there he stuck fast, and
the COW dangled outside between heaven
and earth, also unable to get loose His
wife had waited and waited for her husband
to come and call to dinner, but nothing was
heard from him. At last she found the
time too long to wait, and started to the
house. When she found the COW hanging
in such a dangerous position she cut the
rope with the scythe when Of course her
husband fell down through the chimney,
and when she entered the door he was
standing on his head in the mush pot.