Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1881-08-24

| basket was not hall emptled OF Its contents
Father, John, Ross and Nellie gaped ant
stretched, and one by one followed the chill
dren of to bed. Eleven, and still we sat, 81
lent and grim as ghosts, solemnly stitching
away at the endless rent.
"Cad,' said Kate, at last, jerking The
words out as if she hated them, show dc
you like it2"
"Like what 2" asked in establishment.
"This life Of slavery. This bumdrum
everlasting stick-to-it, unsatisfactory, exist
ence. With not speck of spice in the way
of variety about it. just over and over
round and round, until we seek our rest
low in the ground"
"Oh, Kate /" l exclaimed, almost shocked
"not SO bad as that not nearly so bad as
that"
yes, worse than that with many, very
many, Cad Rouncewell My plain opinion,
very plainly expressed, is, that women are
fools"
"Why, Katel"
"Don't why, Kate me Just look at
the mending basket. 1t has been filled and
emptied year after year; filled by our care
lessness and emptied by our mothers slav.
ish toll, and we great, healthy, overgrown
| girls, sat calmly by and saw her do it. And
she, weak, unselfsh woman that she is, had
not snap enough about her TO rap us over
the head for our ugliness."
Iopened my mouth to say something, but
she made dab at me with her needle, and
| | desisted
"Don't expostulate" she exclaimed, &c
hate it. Look at yourself as you are, and as
| you have been ever since you were born, a
little, useless bit of furniture, and see if you
don't look ugly. | have been taking Just
| such view of myself ever since we've
found ourselves trying to fill mothers place,
and found we couldn't, and I've got so full of
indignation at myself for being so blind,
and at mother for being so foolish, that
shall burst if don't out with it,"
"But we can't help it now, Kate" ven
tured to remonstrate.
"No, of course we can't, you goose. The
past isn't ours, but the present is, and the
future may be. That's what Pm coming at,
exactly. We must not let mother and father
die, yet awhile"
"Die !" exclaimed, shocked beyond ex-
preston.
eyes, Caddy, didn't notice it any more
than you have, until the past two weeks ;
but it seems to me now, that l could count
every furrow iii fathers careworn brow and
every thread of mothers whitening hair
They are old beyond their years, Caddy.
They have been worked to death, and be-
cause they loved us so well as to bear it all
patiently, we never saw it,"
Hates voice was all of tremble, and
burst into tears.
Mother is an intellectual woman" she
went on in moment "with mind capa-
BILE of rare development. But how much
time do you suppose she has had for read
ing and reflection beyond the wants and
necessities OF her large family And don't
you know, Cad, how often we have ex-
cused ourselves from reading aloud to her,
letting her sit digging away in this very
basket, solitary and alone, through the long
evening hours ! fairly hate myself when !
think of it,"
did, too, by this time, and said so.
But, Katie" | added, "isn't there a
bright side to it somewhere ?"
We can make one" she answered, deci-
sively 81 have been thinking of that how
would it do to work and get the house.clean-
ing all done before she gets home 1t will
be vacation next week, aud Ross and Nellie
will be here to help u.s."
To this plan readily assented, and then
we went to bed. When we arose the next
morning it was with very different views of
ever cherished before. But we were deter
mined to enter into the conflict armed with
a strength higher than our own, and through
that to conquer. And we did. Two weeks
more, and the house wore new aspect from
garnet to cellar; everything was as fresh and
clean as could be, and we'll repaid we felt for
all our toll. One spot in the house was our
attraction, and that was mother and fathers
room; hitherto bare, sparsely furnished
apartment, with the same stamp of self de-
NAL upon it there had always been upon
everything that was individually their own;
but now the most CHEEKY, tastefully arranged
OF any room in the house. We girls had
planned the renovation, and John-dear,
good, honest fellow-had lovingly paid the
bills. And now, with all in readiness for her
coming, with well-cooked meal upon the
table, with an air of thrift and neatness upon
everything, which gave us the utmost salts
faction we looked for our mother home.
But when she came-when we saw the dear
face looking eagerly out of the hack window
to catch glsmpse of home and its treasured
inmates-the revulson of feeling was too
much for us, and we ran behind the door to
hide our tears. Such foolish thing, but we
did not stay there long. She called us as
she came IN, and we came out of our hiding
place, all tear-stained as we were, and greeted
her. And such time as we had taking her
over the house and witnessing her delight
and surprise; mingled with little soft
hearted rebukes for working SO hard while
she was gone But when she came upon
her own room, and her eyes fell upon the
bright new carpet the bed with its snowy
spread and rufied pillows, the easy chair
and dressing table, with all its little APP.
pointments, it was really refreshing to hear
her exclaim over the extravaganza we had
been guilty of, and all for the sake of
woman who was fast growing old. But oh,
when we told her we had done it all that
she might dwell in perpetual youth when
we whispered in her ear the lesson we had
learned by putting ourselves in her place
when we told her what we proposed to do in
the future, that she might live, not as a
slave, but as queen among her children,
how her heart melted into tears, and with
manifest love she chung to us
And as the years still come and 90 we are
reaping blessed recompense The rich
reward OF our struggle with idleness and
self-indulgence we see before us in the faces
OF our loved and loving parents, where sits
sweet content and beams look of youth
once more. They share with us our pleas
ures and our entertainments we share with
them the otherwise solitary hours, and in
the interchange of thought and feeling find
wisdom we could have gained from no other
source. Rejoicing in the knowledge that we
are smoothing for them the rugged pathway
OF mortality, we feel our recompense to be
incorruptible, being assured that it is as
gold laid up in the treasure-house of God,
and bringing forth an hundred fold.--Se-