Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1882-11-03
NO THIRD MRS. PERRY.

NU IdiRU Mis-. PERRY.
''She amt the same sort as your first
wife. Henry" said Mrs. Perry, with an
ominous closing of her upper lip over the
lower one.
Mrs. Perry called herself devout Chris
tian. All through the country she was
held in estimation as one of the salt of
the earth, comforting beside sick bed.
efficient in neglected household, and
welcome everywhere. And when Alice
May came to the old homestead, as her
sons second wife, she naturally looked
up with reverential affection to the veneer
able, white-capped old lady.
''Sweetheart!" the young husband had
said, looking fondly into the eyes of his
bride, as they stood under the poisoning
boughs of the ounce trees on the soft May
night when first he brought her home.
do you think you can be happy here?''
"Oh, Harry. young wife had re-
piled, sit is like paradise
| But Mrs. Henry Perry soon found out
that Lilac Farm was something more
practical than her ideas of paradise.
Don't know how TO churn!' said Mrs.
Perry, Senior. in Amusement.
why, Alice, where were you brought
up? Henry's first wife thought nothing
of churning twenty pounds of butter of a
morning, besides doing all the homework
and getting breakfast for four hired men"
/ Alice colored to the very roots of her
luxuriant chestnut brown hair.
Il know nothing about the country,
dear Mrs. Perry" she said, for she was too
shy to use the tender term, mother" I'M
less by the special invitation which had
not been accorded II was educated, you
know, at a boarding school; after I grad
uated taught school until met Henry,
and"
81 dare say" said Mrs. Perry, dryly;
'but if you are going to be farmers wife
it is high time you acquainted yourself
with some of the duties pertaining to your
position. NV sons first wife now was a
model"
Alice looked eagerly up.
''Please, Mrs. Perry" said she. s'tell me
what she used to do. Of course, 1 have
had no experience, but
"Well," said Mrs. Perry, looking up to
the top fringe of the curtains and touch
ing the tips of her fingers refectively to-
gether, ''she had faculty, Dorothy had.
She was famous cook. She baked fresh
pies every day, for no one can be expected
to like stale pies. Her hot breakfast bis
cults were like fakes of snow, and we
mostly had waffies for supper, with honey
and fresh apple sauce. She always got up
att O'Clock of Monday morning to do
the washing. Henry's shirts have never
been the same since Dorothy was remov-
ed And wish you could have seen her
ironings. The sewing circle met here once
a month, and the teas Dorothy got up
were the talk of the neighborhood. And
| there was a Sister of Industry meeting
here once fortnight, and the Singers
Symposium every other Friday. She was
noble-hearted Christian, Dorothy was!
And then she did all the family sewing
She could not reconcile it to her own con-
science and her husband s income, she
said, ito hire such work DONE"
And Alice, who had committed the
enermity of having dress made by a
! dressmaker, colored scarlet and hung her
head.
| ''Then at butchering time,' proceeded
relentless Mrs. Perry, Senior, dorothy
always made the tripe and sausage-meat
and corned the hams herself, and she
cleaned house four times year. she was
master-hand at quilting, and she always
made her own bonnets. A woman can
| save SO much for her husband that way
AS for the butter and cheese, [. think, if
! she hadn't died so suddenly, poor thing,
that she could have beaten any record in
in the country!'
Alice sighed deeply. How could she, a
slender, inexperienced woman of twenty. i
hope to cope with these marvellous at
talnments? :.
''Henry never told me all this" said
she.
81 suppose he has thought of it many
time" said Mrs. Perry, Senior. 'But per-
haps he didn't like to allude to it while
you were playing on your melodeon and
reading your books. Dorothy never got
any time to read!"
"But if you'll teach me, pleaded Alice;
ST will do my best to learn
She locked the melodeon, put away the
books and portfolio and her basket OF
fancy needle-work, and set herself reso-
lutely to work to fill the place Of the de-
parted Dorothy.
"Why, what little Homework you
are," said Henry, laughing, when she
| showed him the tray of golden butter that
she had churned, and succeeded in burn
ing her fingers at the ironing fire and re-
ducing her pretty complexion to scarlet in
| cooking buckwheat cakes for breakfast.
II want to be one,," said Alice, wistful-
Ws