Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1882-11-02
CROPPLE-CROWN'S WEDDING.

"An' now, air you goin' to tell me, or
amt you?''
Dead silence, broken only by the rat
tie of beans from hand to pan.
6 You can't cover it up nor hide it,
nohow. Slocum saw We, an more n
once, too, an he knows there's letters -
Still silence. Mrs. Jennison pushed
up her glasses, gave pull to the black
silk sheath which did duty IS cap, and
from which her wisps of gray hair
seemed to sprout, and gasped once or
twice, as words crowded faster than
tongue could manage or thought ar
range. Then she burst out, determine
ton evident under snarling tone,
which might have been taken as an indi-
cation of mere peevishness, had not the
face held something much stronger and
more persistent in quality than would
be indicated by any characteristic
marked as peevishness alone.
"You'n go your own way when you're
twenty-one, an not day before. Talk
to me! 'Siah Perkins! A hoss-drivin',
goddess teller, never inside a meetin'-
house onless he's on the lookout for
some gal, an never the same gal three
months runnin'. His father afore him,
way for way, the same, an not two gals
in the borough that he didn't cackle over
their wearin' the willow for him. A
thrift less, mis'able set, an l wash my
hands O. you if you give in to one of
'em. Now, mark my wordsi Out of
this house you don't 90 without me. L
haven't shaved an toiled an brought you
up to be some standby to me, to have
you throw it away on 'Siah Perkins.
That's the end ont"
-oI t>,,.f
dropped in the energy of accusation,
and knit round with her sharp, small
ewes still fixed on the flushed cheeks
turned from her and bending over the
pan of beans. Midsummer, it is true,
and pork and beans hardly in order,
even for the most ingrained New Eng
lander, but to Mrs. Jennison beans and
dried apples, Goldfish and salt pork, rep
resented all the possibilities and COM
possibilities as we'll of food. Who
sighed for anything beyond was guilty
of worse weakness than the old Israel
ties in their moan for the leeks and
onions of Egypt. Dried beans and dried
beans onlv-even string beans being a
wild and wicked waste, a reckless de-
struction of what should make six dinners,
where. 5 in their infant state, but one
could be had.
For Mrs. Jennison belonged to the
happilv decreasing number of women
who. having been born to the New Eng
land farmers unending struggle with
the foundations of the earth, which crop
ND more persistently and battle with the
soil more steadily there than in any
other portion of the farmers territory,
valued proportionately every product
wrested from the soil.
Hardscrabble had been her native dis
trict. and Hardscrabble it remained, the
hillsides a wilderness of lodges or rolling
stones. and the sunniest meadow still
holding more rocks than grass.
MANY children. came to the gaunt,
sbarp faced mother, and one by one
took their place in the lengthening row
IN the HIGGINS lot. Whatever love
might have helped them to linger longer
had gradually died out. Interruptions
from beginning to end, Peter Higgins
lean and weakened, with myriads OF fine
.yrinkles about his eyes, and the look OF
o mnsty parchment-had always re-
oarded them, and frowned deferml-
1atelv ON any attention not absolutely
essential. and on some that were. IA
font. bony, sad-eyed objects, the babies
Law where they were put, following the
Tnotber,s steady progress from one piece
- work to another with looks always
saore and more wistful, till the low,
Damn kitchen, sunless and cherries, IN
wbicb The grinding days went by. mad
Sone its work, and the little lives hick-
cred out, to find kindlier welcome IN
q country where the inhabitants take
time from the reservoir known as e1er-
nifty. ard +ben GROWS
81, flower delicate and fragrant as the