Weekly Chillicothe crisis. (Chillicothe, Livingston Co., Mo.) 1878-19??, 1881-04-28

WIG W dA ScMIllS.
Stitch, stitch, stitch; rock, rock, rock.
Would the stitching and rocking never
stop?
"l'ut pshaw" thought Harry ITar-
court. "What right have | to be un-
easy? \ woman's work is nothing.
Let her stitch and let her rock. It's
what women are made for"
Still, he could not help reclining
there and watching her.
The clock struck eleven, and still her
silent, weary work went on; and, as
Harry iIarcOurt ga2ed, he fancied that
her entire brain and body became
transparent, and he could see himself
reflected in her thoughts as he had
never seen himself before.
"Ycs, yes" she siiloquised. and her
mental thoughts thrilled him like clcc-
tricity, Harry thinks he is the head of
this family, and its only proyidcr, stay,
and support. But, bless him, he doesn't
know. guess I'll retire from the
firm and give him II much-uccded les
SON.
And she bent low over the cradle
and kissed the sleeping baby, and ev-
en- while he ga2ed at her she disap-
pemed,
What had become of her?
Harry IImcourt arose from his
cOuch and put on his clothes and ap,
preached Tie cradle reyerently and
cautiously. Near it was her low rock
ing.chair and by its side the heaped
up WOrk-baskel, and her scissors, spool
and thimble On the floor which was
yet damp from the after supper mop
ping it had received wher the children
and himself were in bed, lay a pro-
mscuous array Of old clothes, washed,
ironed, patched and mended by her pa
tent fingers. lie gathered up the
worn garments one by one, and as he
touched them, felt that they were
warm with the wasted lifefOrces of
his palc.faced wife,
The night passed away, morning
roseate and radiant beamed in at the
cutained window where Harry IIar-
court sat watching. The baby awoke
and began its usual wailing cry. He
tried hard tOpacify it with the nursing
bottle his wife had provided the night
before, but ii refused to be cOmfortcd.
He remembered seeing its mother shake
it into a few extra screams, followed by
a season of quietude, but when he
tried the experiment it did not succeed.
What was he to dOY
The older children were up by this
time, clamoring and hungry and cold.
lie knocked them to the right and left,
with his open hands and scolded them
into trembling silence.
"Where's my mammal
The manswerable question was re-
peated over and over till Harry ITar-
court grew frantic with suspense and
grief and bewilderment.
The pile of mending had not all been
completed, and the many missing but
tons made it very incOnvenient for him
TO dress the children properly for Sab
bath school.
The breakfast was u complete fail
ure. The children could not eat his
primitive cooking, and the baby's wall
ing cries racked his nerves strong and
healthy as he was-till he was desper-
ate enough to almost strangle it.
Dinner was a more perplexing meal
for him to prepare than breakfast. He
whipped Ben and Billy to make them
wash the dishes, and whipped them
even harder when they broke half of
them into a shapeless mass by letting
the dish-pan fall.
Monday came at last, and after a
sleepless night with the wailing baby,
Harry Harcourt went once more
through the perplexing work of the
morning in the kitchen.
And then came the washing.
A wearier, crosser man than Harry
Harcourt never sat down to a cold din
ner. ''i F'' '
The children skulked in the corners
and fairly forgot to play at tandem
teaming. In a few days their clothes
wore out again, and he could not patch
them, nor could he get away from the