The Sentinel. [volume] (Trenton, N.J.) 1880-1882, 1880-08-21
THE FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.
Farmers Wives.

Colonel Higginson writes to the
WonaGp's Journal from the mountains:
Walking by a comfortable farmhouse
the other day, / was attracted by a
remarkably fine lily, of species new
to ME. which grew in wooden urn on
the doorstep. On closer inspection it
proved so beautiful that my companion
and l made bold to ring at the door and
ask for further information. We were
at once cordially greeted by a CHEEKY
woman of middle age, who received
with delight our praises of the lily,
showed US geranium and fuchsia
which rivaled it in her affections, and
Insisted On our going into her old
fashioned parlor, where magnificent
ivy literally encircled the four sides of
theroom from single root in the corner.
She had come to us from the washtub,
but she looked perfectly neat, and was
as ready to talk as we were to listen.
She had lived all her life in the house
where we saw her; it had been occupied
W bA1SS SS1Oi .tJlOAS VI IL L Wv IL
| before her: relies of their old fashioned
furniture were there, stoutly retained
against the Establishments of furniture
( hunters such as ourselves. Especially
curious was a quaint cd mirror, with
heavy gilt frame, and an odd little clock
at the top. Here our hostess had been
married, here she had borne six chill
dren. several of whom had died; she
had lived for year or two in Boston,
the club of the universe" but she
liked the old homestead better. She did
all her own work-the children at home
being still young-and she apologized
protusely for the untidy appearance of
! room in which we could nowhere
detect speck of dust. In her manners
and language she would have appeared
to advantage anywhere.
She lived, to be sure, near the village;
but am constantly receiving the same
sort of impression from the women
whom one meets at the doors of lonely
houses far up on the mountain side.
Driving a long distance one day in
search OF lost spyglass, I was directed
at last up by-road leading from by
road, and ending at length in solitary
mountain gorge, where there was but a
single house. could not imagine what
had broughta settler there, until noted
a fine sugar orchard of maple trees, the
finest to be seen in that whole region
On my knocking at the farmhouse door
it was opened by an old LADY, use the
term advisedly 80 neat, so kind, so
agreeable in expression and manners,
that city visitor would have felt justi-
fed in engaging months board at
once, on the face of appearances alone.
For twenty-five years she had lived up
that lonely glen, going out of it only to
attend meeting" on Sunday, or to make
rare purchases at the village store; she
did not seem to have thought Of it Us dis
tant or solitary until all of her children
had left the farm to seek their fortunes
elsewhe.e; but now she confessed wish
to leave it, not because it was in itself
lonely, but because it was far from
them. Consequently she now hoped
that chez would buy farm nearer to
other folks.
1t is possible that both these types
may represent something above the
average OF farmers wives, in this
mountain region. But the visitor who
in his walks and drives so often notices
this class in passing-seen through the
windows at work or seen at the door
with the little groups of children, so.
rarely absent-cannot help feeling en-
couraged, and yet sometimes saddened,
by the thought of these patient and
silent lives. How much "home" means
to them! How everything is concen-
trated on the home! There is scarcely a
distraction or holiday in their whole
experience; they live almost wholly on
the resources within their own doors.
If peace aud love prevail there, the
women's lives, though laborious and re-
stricted, ale simple, healthful and pro-
tected. If on the other hand there is
any tragedy within those walls, how in
| finitely more wearing itmust be than in
cities, where there are at least neighbors
and other interests to relieve the terrible
monotony of endurance.
| 'Pig In the Glover"
A farm is not complete without pigs;
and pigs are at their best in a field in
which they have green food to pick,
and field is often the most profitable
when it is growing good crop OF tender
clover. The green food the pigs get acts
as corrective to their feed at the
trough. Pigs that are getting clover or
grass can be fed corn without the in
jury it would do them were they con-
fined closely in pens and deprived of
green food. When the grass is short a
feed of fodder corn is important, and
especially so for sows that are rearing
young pigs, as such green food increases
the milk and keeps both SOW and pigs