Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1883-11-16

place" or for a household where the women
folks keepa humm uck and milk only one COW, ~
leaving me to struggle along with my burden
Of work in the heat as best may. / am tired
Of working for other people with no returns
whatever save an aching back and callous
thimble finger. am so selfish want to snug.
gle down in some quiet little home with my
own blessed household around me, and do for
them myself, alone, and not be at the mercy
Of disorderly, slatternly help. May the Lord
forgive me, but sometimes the wish comes
that had been born with 80 little sensibility
and capacity for either suffering or enjoying
that could be comfortable and yet see flies
crawling over uncovered food and muddy boots
on the parlor mantel.
This matter of hired help yearly becomes
moro serious. Scarcity is inducve to indepen-
denoe-I might say impudenoe. Forty years
ago Johns old father spent many consecutive
winters numbering in distant forests, leaving
the entire work and care of this same old
homestead farm in the hands OF hirelings, and
'the work went on just as well, 1 have often
heard the old gentleman say. How, think
you, would it be in these latter days, should
farm and stock be given over to the question
able judgment and care Of the average hired
man? Should you expect to find a whole
fork-tine on the premises and would not the
bedding of your stock be as apt to be your
best meadow hay as anything else? 1.-The
hireing heeth because he is an hireling and
careth not for the sheep" This scriptursl
verse always comforts me when tired with
help that is careless and unprincipled COM
forts because it gives me fresh assurance that
my Saviour knows all about it.
As write, looking from my chamber win
dow, l can see the sloping roof of the car
riage house over it, network Of grape
vines with clusters of fruit purpling among its
leaves, and under it, with back, head and
heels comfortably braced against the rungs Of
a ladder, is one of the farm hands, munching
grapes. To my certain knowledge he has
kept that position for the past two hours, and
his wages dollar day. Is not that princi-
pie J.? No doubt he feels very comfortable and
drowsy on his sunny roost, while John, in a
distant field, with reins over his shoulders
plows alone with three-horse team in order
that this fellow may be husking the molding
corn.
would ask 'E. H. c." what are the requi-
site qualifications for conducting large farm
properly with hired men, when most of them
are eye-servants, and all the labor requiring
judgment, such as sowing, seeding-yes, and
plowing-John must himself do to have it
done properly, and consequently cannot work
with his men all tho time
woman is not supposed to understand
farm work, but sometimes when am sitting
flour from the barrel John has Just unheaded
and l know its bottom slaves l shall scrape
for more flour within twelve days or lift
from the stove the peck of parboiled beans
our Saturdays Allowance think how much
better would be less land, less work and more
comfort. think of the constant rush poor
John is in from April to December; always
driven by his work, as one must be who en-
deavors to carry on so much territory.
think of the social privileges we have lost,
the grateful recreatons we have missed, the
beautiful country life we don't half live or
take time to enjoy, and the good things and
happy times we have hopeless lost in this
fretting rasping life that has narrowed into a
nervous, hurried scrabble to ''get ahead" l
feel that our Christian life has been sadly
dwarfed, our intellectual faculties blunted, and
our affections blurred over, for the lack of
time to cultivate them. l know a sharp,
quick ring has crept into my own voice, a
lack of motherly patience and loving talks
and csresses for my little ones, that seem
powerless to help when constantly annoyed
and always tired
notice the nervous, peaked face of my
oldest boy, and think, Dear Lord, must the
children bear the impress of their parents in
temperance in overwork?" and the Good Book
answers me, "As ye SOW, SO shall We reap. "
note the irritable, fault-fnding spirit crop.
ping out and developing in the atmosphere OF
our home, an atmosphere favorable to its
growth, and am panied to see how fast the
burrows come and deepen in Johns careworn
face, the grey creeps into his brown hair and
a nervous, irritable way is visible in place OF
his old genial self, and all caused by the bur.
dens of this great farm, which ought at least
to be divided into three homesteads.