Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1882-07-06

E1ffer he had gone, Minnie went to-
her room and burst into an agony of
Weeping. She felt crushed and hntnil-
lated, and bitterly angry that her hus-l
hand could bring such accusations
against her at-sib but particularly that
hesceqi1 dntit4ms such an airy manner
as though he were. giving light thumpl
to 4 wooden doll! And after all her
pinchiHg economies, too, in order that
the children might appear respectable,
and that she might, at the same time,
provide agenerous andrwholesome table,
which she considered due to her hus-
band! As for herself, she had not in
:dulged in a new winter suit for five
years; and yet she had made ioyer,t and
touched mp, and dyed and darned to
such an extent that her obtusei better
half was utterly obliyious of either her
deficiencies or. her sacrifices. "If I
were to appear with market-basket on
my head and the American flag for a
shawl Charlie would never know it, y
She thought bitterly. ssW hat is the use
what as the use to+live at all? And
them tpshave to beg for every dollars to
keep the house going, as If 1 were an
uninterested outside factort Can Char.
lie know how much trouble it is to get
on with the housekeeping anyway, even
when the money is all provided, if he
thus puts this additional, humiliating
burden upon mep Is this the Charlie
who was SO eager to win me, who paid
me such delicate, watchful attentions
when I was pretty, free Minnie War
field? If married life is only a con-
venience to man, in order that he may
Sfu. TO CHI
with his Office coat and slippers, the
ordinary courtesies of life, marriage
must be universal blunder! Marriage
doesn't dull sensibilities-it only height
ems them.E Whose fault can it be?
Charlie told me that we should not be
rich, but that his income would com
fortably support us. Then why all this
wrong and sacrifice and pinehing in
order to appear like other people, and
other people with less income too?"
Then she took the trouble, where she
had been in the habit of taking her
troubles fora long time, to the Lord. SO
Rising from her knees, the resolnte
little woman dried her eyes, and pro-
ceeded to think out the matter in, a
practical way. "Charlie has given me
a great deal of money, tits true, and L
have always been very careful in spend
ing it, too. Let me see.. Could get on
without Bridget, I wonder, and so save
her wages? But then there :, the wash.
ing and ironing Just then the baby
woke and sscried, and Mrs Barnard
thought she would have to keep Bridget.
"Wen, there's Mary and Phil; they
must go to school, and they can't 60
shabby, either--that's certain, and they
must have books, too. How l wish L
could. have books !''-with "a sigh.
.tThere's my home paper. could spare
that, L suppose, though it's like a little
piece of home every week. Charlie.
brought home a new parlor clock the
other day; we could have done without
that, and it makes everything else in the
room hook so badly, too, in contrast.
There's my silver card.casket Charlie
gave me my last birthday. It's beauti-
full, and very good of him, too. I'm so
thankful I didn't, hurt his feelings by
telling him I'd much rather have had
the money for gloves and boots, mine
are so dreadfully shabby. Charlie
always looks nicely, but then like to
have him." The baby was quiet by this
time, and Minnie took a pencil, in a
gold case, one of her hus-
bands gifts, too: She thought again,
as she took it, how good he was, after
all, and went to her elegant little desk,
all mother of pearl and crimson vel
vet for a sheet of paper. Then she
made q long list of articles wages,
meat, butter, milk, flour, potatoes,
slgar, oysters, tea, coffee, chocolate,
piekle cheese, sweets, wood, coal,
hghts; it was filling up the page fast.
Should she scrxsehsout anythingp PICK
essGisg sweresuuhsaHhy, anyway, but
charlie liked them. OYSTERS too. He
liked to have little supper sometimes,
ind a few-a. very few, four or five
friends. Tt was very pleasant, and on
hose OCCASIONS she noticed that butter
ind eggs and sugar went very fast. 1T
must be the cake. Then she made a
careful computation. She drew line
through oysters, meaning to bring that
Question up afterward.. The smallest
possible allowance for a family of six
seemed to be ten dollars Sasweek, and
6hen she must leave out, the. wood. and
Tor. incidentals-herfo own and the CHI
aren'ssclothing, books, and wear and
tear generally, to say nothing of charityP
i 4OS, Scciuco IL tuCy COulu IiOb XSG
less than fifty doll ars q month
Tor the running expenses; and she would
ask her husband for that amount as The
Just due. Sheswas convinced it4would
be right to do so. His income was
eighteen hundred dollars afyear, and he
ought to afford regular sum for the
family, the amount not being nearly as
as the regularity of its ap-
pearance4 For herself Awen, she'could
not ask Charlie for a personal allow
ance, even if she had been married
seven years, and might be supposed to
have grown grasping and self asserting,
according to her discipline. But she
would ask him for an allowance for the
children; and at the rate they wore out
shoes and tore up garments she thought
i've dollars q month little aenoughs for
The three. She would not err on the
'ide of avarce, even if sshe did on that
If pertinacity $50, calm her new re-i
'olye, she xhathed her eyes, ,smoothed
ler brow, brushed her still wavy brown
aair awayfrpm a fair though somewhat
worm face, and met her husband at din
Ter with CHEEKY smile. After dinner
Vii. Barnard announced that he was