Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1881-12-29
Mrs Wonders Dream On New
Years Eve.

81 wish there wasn't a man or child
on the earth-there nowm Johnny
got a sharp box on the ear and Mittie
was set down on a chair with jounce
that almost shook the little house to
its foundations, and Mrs Wonder pro-
ceeded to get supper for the ''man." J"
They were the torment of her life
these children and that "mau." The
first thing in the morning and the last
thing at night she was hrrrying and
working and contriving just for them.
No peace or comfort or rest did she
know-nor they either, for that mat
ter. 1t was New Years Eve, and. as is
natural with us all, she had been re-
viewing her life for the past twelve
mOnths-just as she had done each
New Years Eve for the past five years,
and, just as a great many of us have
been after such retrospect, she was a
good deal discouraged; discouragement
seldom has the effect to make US GOOD
humored, and we always attempt to
believe that the blame lies with some
body beside ourselves, and we often
feel that if we could lift the whole
world up and set it down with jounce,
it would do US an amazing amount of
good. Just so Mrs Wonder felt when
she gave utterance to the pointed re
mark at the beginning of the chapter,
and her feelings were depicted on her
countenance as Mr. Wonder opened
the door, and with an inquiring look
stepped into the room as she placed the
last smoking dish upon the tea-table.
'There. l wish you'd eat your sup
per and get to bed out of the way"
was the gentle invitation for the chill
dren to partake of the evening meal,
and they followed instructions hurried
ly and silently as they could. Mr.
Wonder, who had long ago become
used to these little diversions, got him
self off down town as soon as practica-
BILE, and the unhappy, discouraged,
overworked, impatient and fretful wife
and mother was left alone for the bal
ance of the evening.
20 feel that he: work was done for the
night, and that she might sit down in
a char to rest; for though men declare
and maintain that women, as house =
wives, don't have "anything much to
do, they are mistaken, nevertheless, and
women will dispute this point with
them till the crack of doom, and proba-
bly, at that important period neither
will have arrived any nearer the same
conclusion than they are now. Mr.
Wonder, as he meandered down town
at that identical hour, was wondering.
what Hannah could find to do that.
made her SO cross and tired all
the time. Why couldn't her work be
done at six o'clock, as was his? And
why couldn't she sit down and read,
evenings, as he did? And Mrs Won
der might have told him, as she had
told him a hundred times before, that
there were some buttons off Johnny's
coat that must be put on when he
wasn't wearing it, and a rent in Nit
ties apron that must he sewed up be-
fore the child wanted it in the morn
ing, and stockings to darn and gloves
to mend, and a thousand little things
just right for women to do of even
ings," as Grandma Parsons used to
say. Mr. Wonder, however, was a very
good sort of a man, and tried to make
the best Of things, and nobody will
maintain that he was to blame if Ma
ture hadn't given him the sense and
reason to fully understand the circum
stances of the case, and so, as he sat IN
the club-room, where he had been in
directly sent by Mrs Wonder, the lat
ter sat by the fire at home, alone, and
soon fell into heavy slumber, and as
she slept she dreamed:
In her dream Mrs Wonder seemed to
have been transported 10 a strange
country, and her arrival and appear
ance were a matter of as much curiosi-
ty to the people she met as were they
to her. The most she could make of
them was that they were human be-
ings, but the manner in which they
were clad, left it an open question as
to which sex they belonged; her first
impression was that they had arisen
in haste that day, and each thrown an
empty cofree-sack over the head after
first cutting a hole for the eyes and
mouth.
She seemed TO have spent a week
among this mysterious community,go
ing whittier she pleased ard helping
herself to whatever she could find to
eat. She at last discovered that her
companions understood her position
far better than she understood it her
self, and that they laughed among
themselves as they watched her IN
quiring countenance, and vouchsafed
no commentaries upon the situation,
until she, unable to endure the sus-
pense and strangeness of the sur
roundings, at last broke forth with
eager questionings, after she had dis
covered, to her horror, the true state of
the society into which she had been
thrown.
"Where are your husbands?" she IN
quired one day, finding herself sur
rounded by a dozen of the strange com
munity which, she had become satisf-
ed, consisted of women only.
They Immediately broke forth into
the most unmlstakable expressions of
scorn and Iidicule, and at last, amid
the uproar, she managed to catch one
intelligent answer:
"We drove 'em off twenty years ago;
them that wouldn't go with scoldin'
got hot water, an broomsticks, an
mop handles, an rollin' pins, an flat
irons, an things, an" she added, ,shak-
ing delicate fist vigorously, "we'd
like to see the man shat'd dare 20 step
foot an this soil ag'in. The truth of
the matter was," she continued, as her