Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Anacortes, Wash. Ter.) 1882-1887, 1882-09-09

returned to the old homestead to take up
the,r rev life, and Mrs. Huntline re.
turned also to her doubly-bereft exist
ence, since she was both homeless and
widowed.
The new Mrs. Huntline elbowed her
mother-in-law from her place at the head
of the table, where she had presided for
over thirty years. The old Mrs. Hunt
line accepted the situation. She did not
interfere with any of the new-fapgled
airs that took the place of the old-fash-
ioned regulations. She glided i'll and
out of the rooms like ghost, and grew
more and more conscious that she was
considered burden as the fanilys ex-
penses increased.
Ned Huntline did not prosper in his
u.iness, and, as the years rolled ON, the
homestead was mOrtgaged to meet the
demands of his creditors. Little respon-
sbilities were added to the household in
annual lrcinforcements. and the old adage,
"a fool for luck and poor man for
children" was amply verified.
Mrs. Huntline's legacy did not prove
a financial success. She was compelled
to act as child's nurso even more con-
stantly than when her own babies were
growing. She had been servant with
out wages In her husbands lifetime, but
she WAS a servant of servants now. The
Chinese cook would not tolerate her in
the kitchen, DOR could he prepare her
food to her liking.
The Junior Mrs. Huntline grew more
and more cold d-hearted and exacting.
Adversity pressed hard upon Ned, who
gradually grew to think with his wife
that his mother was burden and in the
way. Interest accrued upon the mort
gag ., and there WAS no money to meet
the debt. Ned grew morose and unclvil,
aud when his mother, who had toiled
beyond her strength in caring for his chill
dren. was laid low with rheumatic fe-
yer, he inwartlly confessed that her room
would be more acceptable than her COM
pany. The anxiety and poverty and
noise and discomfort preyed upon her
spirits, and her recovery was slow.
Mrs. Huntline WAS just able to sit mp
and occupy chair at the breakfast table
on the tenth anniversary of her hus-
bands death. The childien were noisy,
tile food was not to her liking, and the
taLlecloth was awiy. She could not eat
she leaned back ill her chair aud wept
silently.
"You have on easier time than any Of
u.s." said Ned, petu antiy, us he noticed
her tears. '.Molie SAWS YOU have always
been a trial to her. Cau't you be little
more reasonable? 1t seems to me that
il hadn' n'tanyth;ng to worry me but the
quality of my vietuals you'd not put
on airs.
Mrs. Huntline was sung into open re-
tort for the first tim6 i'll all these years.
eff your father had left me this
homestead, rs the legacy that is right
fully mine, l should hive been able to
surround myself with every needed COM
fort, and wouldn'thave been obliged to
overlo my strength and catch the rheu-
matte fever by being child's nurse,
either"
I'D like to know what you'd hnve
done with the homestead if you had it,
surlily answered Ned.
81 wouldn't have mortgaged it, Was
the fearful reply. "Suppose ], instead of
your father, had died, Ned" she con-
tinued, "do you thiuk he would have
BEEN contented with his lot il had
willed his homestead into other hands
and left him to feel himself burden in
the house Of his children? Do You
think the legacy of daughter-in-law,
who would have thought him nuisance
no matter what he did, would have COM
pensated him for the loss OF his home?
Ned Huntline did not reply. But his
brow contracted; he was thinking,
thinking Ten years had wrought a
great change in him. No one would have
thought, on the day of his marriage,
that he would deteriorate in so short a
time from the tidy, well-prescrved young
man of the decade gone by into the
seedy, careless and wretchea-appearing
fellow that he now was.
"If the homestead had remained
mine," said his mother, ''yCu would not
be living under mortgaged roof now,
Ned, nor would have been dependent
drudge during all these years. / don't
think l can live great while-I hope
i can't-but l WISH to impress on you
an important duty before my change
comes"
"What is it, mother?"
at is this: Never wrong your wife,
even ON your dsath-bed, by willing the
hard-earned home away from her; and
never imagine that you can make her
comfortable in her widowhood by de-
priving her of everything else and be-
slowing upon her a daughter-in-law
that she did not choose as her only
legacy"
There was a rap at the door, and
magistrate entered, bringing the looked
for but unweicomed news that the
homestead had been sold under the
hammer, and had barely brought enough