The Penn's Grove record., 1883-11-03
wooL-PIGKISo AND A PICNIC.
Good evenin, Mis-, Hornishn

NV
"Why, is that you, Mis- Manlyf
Come in, won't your L wouldn't
a-knowed you but for your voice, seem
as your bonnet is so fur owe your face,
an this ham a-fryin' does make sech
fumes around my head"
"Mis' Manly" stood in the doorway.
1t was dusk. She wore a long gray
bonnet of the Kind known as .Shaker, ;
with a voluminous skirt that wrapped
her figure like a comfortable mantle.
If you could have peeped like a star
within that bonnet, you would have
seen a tired, worn face, and eyes that
looked with something like envy into
the comfortable kitchen where Mis-
Hornish was frying bacon for ''his''
supper. I'm this western country the
shy matrons always speak of their hus-
bands as ''he.")
sits so late / can't STOP" said Mis-
Manly. 81 just dropped round to say
l was tryin' to git up a wool-pickin' for
to- morrow, an to see if you an Deb
would come"
Debby Hornish was busy at the
ironing-table, pressing out a white skirt
| with an oversight and three ruffies; but
she stopped a moment, pushing back
the little black rings of hair from her
rosy brow, to say:
why, Mis- Manly, what a pityl I'd
have helped you with all the pleasure
in life; but there's the picnicl What
ever possessed you to have the wool
pickin' the same day?"
..Ain't it just my luck?" cried the
| widow. "You see, I've been kind o
| slack about my wool, am yestiddy
mornin' Mr.. Simlins said if I'd have
it ready agin Thursday, that he'd take
it in to Mulkytown and sell it for me.
It's the only chance I'll get to send il
| off; and wool is up now to so cents in
money, and 30 in trade; so l just felt as
if l must get it out tomorrow, come
what might" w
Show many have promised to Gomez
swell you see, this picnic spoils
| everything. l could a-got Is or 20,
and we could a-finished it up before
noon. But everybody was plum crazy
about this picnic. l amt got the
promise of more'n five ladies. an you
| know that amt no show at all to pick
out the wool of IL sheep, an it seems
like my sheep was always the d~irtiest
| sheep-an' the fondest o. brambles and
brier- hedges-of any in the country
Here Mis- Manly let a few tears fall:
mild as the rain of a drilling day, and
quite IS depressing.
sit is too bad for anythingl' cried
Mrs Hornish, with hearty sympathy,
"I'n come over, of couse; but Deb, you
know couldn't give up the picnic"
"Law no, 1t couldn't be expected
Pm powerful glad to have you. you'll
come early, won't your"
I'm be bound that L get over before
you have your dishes done up" said
Mrs Hornish, with a jolly laugh.
The widow Manly took her sad face
home; the supper was dished; ''he'
came in from the wheat field; and the
white dress was finished and fiuted; but
somehow Debby Hornish did not feel
quite happy.
''She did look so pitiful, " she thought,
recalling the pinched little face under
the sun-bonnet. 81 should have been
so glad to have helped her,"
In truth, the poor, complaining little
woman needed help a good many times
in the course of the year. "He'' had
| been killed in a mill where he worked
some five years before, leaving to his
wife four children, a small farm, a few
| sheep, and a cow; all of which she
managed as well as her load of fears,
agitations, and chills allowed. They
all had chills, poor things; they had
given up the doctor as a vain luxury.
but they bought quinine and calomel
| by the pound, and worked on dismally
between the shakes. A wool-picking
was one of the hardest ''chores" of the
year.
Are there any of my city-bred young
folks who don't know what a wool.
picking is? 1t is a careful picking
over of the wool after it has been
sheared to free it from burrs, brambles,
berries, Spanish-needles, dry mud, and
dead insects that a lively sheep will
collect in his rambles through the world.
Further north the sheep are taken to a
sparkling running stream, and wei
washed before they are clipped; but In
the stagnant, coffee-colored creeks OF
the West this would be a useless cere
mony.
"Not half-a-dozen in the county tc
help that foolish little woman, "thought
Deb, wrathfully, why couldn't SHE
have had her wool-pickm' a week ago.
AT any other time there would have
been no lack of neighbors to help the
widow in her need; but everybody wa
taken up with the picnic. nthe hard
work-day life of these people, few pleas
ures arise; and in all the farm houses
through the six-mile and the nine-mil(
prairie this picnic had been talked aboui
for a month of Sundays.
They were going in buggies, wagons
and on foot; were to fish in Big-Mudd.
creek; to gather wild roses and black
berries; to light a fire in the "timber'
so they called the wooded portion
of the fiat eountry-and make hot cot
faa for dinnar. and danca nndar tn,