Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1883-09-19
HIRAM'S VISIT.


"Going to git married, be you,
Hiram?"
Hiram Honeydew colored at the alb
rupt question, but he answered, truth.
fully:
81 don't see what else / kin do,
Aunt Peggy. Sister Susan is bent on
a-marryin' the school-teacher an
a-goin' off to the Black Hills or som'eres
away out of all creation. An here's
all the fall work a-comin' on-that
medder hay to stack, an corn to cut,
pumkins to gether an all them wind
falls an Siberian crabs to make up in
cider fur the apple-butter, an no help
to be got fur love or money. An it
stands to reason l can't tend the farm
and cook the vittles, too. So thought
soon as thraShln' was over-yOu'ye
n Viri"e' = - AN +han Amt paoov
an then thought "a ugS e. fiSSsRS
som'eres nigh about Clover Creek,
where some of our kinfolks live, an
stay a week or so, an git a-a-some-
body that can housekeep an the like
do the milkin an churnin', tend to
putin up fruit, maxim apple-butter,
take keer of the chickens an ducks,
an do the cookin' an cleanin'. Sister
Susan was powerful good housekeep-
er, an she couldn't be beat a-cookin',
either If | could find a good sort of a
woman that 'ud cook ekal to Susan, l
wouldn't mind a-marryin' her"
"Humph! So you expect to git a
wife an good one, too, in a week or
two, hey? You're a gump, Hiram
Honeydew, an nothin' else. Besides,
you'd ought to git a wife you could
keer fur, as well as good housekeep-
er. Housekeepin' an cookin' amt
everything, l tell you. There's sech a
thing as affeckshin between man and
wife"
But Hiram secuted at this idea.
"One woman is the same as another
to me-" he returned, loftily. 81 want
a housekeeper, an that's why I'm
a-goin' to marry at ALL"
oval then, Hiram, if you're bound
an determined to go an hunt up a
wife that a-way,mebbe l kin help you a
little. / knowed the folks about
Clover Creek like book when yer
Uncle Eli was alive, an we lived on
the old Honeydew farm. An thai
was Mahala Nutter. She married Jot
Perky, an they bought a farm or
Clover Hill, t'other side the creek
There want nobody could beat Mahalf
housekeepin' them days, an mos
likely her darter, Marthy Jane, he:
tuck after her. They are sort O kir
folks O yourn, too. Mahaly was vel
Uncle Ellis own cousin. An eff yor
like, I'll write 'em a few lines, an tel
'em you're a-comin, an sort O perpar'
'em, fur nobody likes to hev comp'n.
unexpected"
And so it was settled, much t.
Hiram's relief, and he whetted hi
scythe and went out to NOW feed o
green clover for his horses with
lighter heart than he had had for
week.
For he had made up his mind that /
Martha Jane Perky was as good
housekeeper as Aunt Peggy said, h
would bring her home with him a
Mrs. Honeydew in weeks time, i
she was willing.
And no doubt she would be, 70
Hiram was quite a good-looking mar
with pleasant brown eyes, curly brow
hair, and a thick, brown moustache.
Moreover he was "well-to-do," an
almost any of the girls in his ow
neighborhood would have jumped a
the chance of presiding over his broa
acres and picturesque cottage farm
house, half buried in sugar-maples an
tall Lollard poplar-trees.
But to Hiram, as to most other
.. distance lent enchantment to the view
and he was "bound and determined,
Aunt Peggy had said, to seek his fat