Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1883-05-10


used to that. She split piece of pitch
pine into splinters and soon had roar
ing fire and red hot oven. In her
haste to prepare the meal before the
baby should awake and cry. she burnt
her meat and scorched her pototoes
and burned heavy crust on her bis
cult.
So the supper was indigestible-an
unusual thing-but Harry ate heartily
and as usual retired early to rest, leav-
ing his pale-faced wife to wash the
dishes and scrub the children, and af-
ter they were safe in bed, apply her
self to finish the huge basket of mend.
ing before the mantle clock should
chime the heur of midnight.
Harry Harcourt felt little anxious
and trife mean as he watched her
furtively, and saw how very pale and
weary she was; but he was not the man
to unbend from his fancied dignity,
nor did he really believe that his wife
deserved his sympathy. He lay upon
his back in the bedroom adjoining leav-
ing the door slightly sjar.
Stitch, stitch, stitch. went the weary
fingers of the pale-faced wife, as the
hours went on, her feet in the mean
time keeping up ceaseless rock, rock,
rock, with the swaying cradle.
Harry HarcOurt was uneasy. Per-
haps it was his supper, perhaps it was
his conscience. But his stomach and
his conscience were alike impervious
to ordinary disturbances, and I leave
the reader to guess the cause Of bis
uneasiness. He raised up on his elbow
and gazed out into the room where his
wife was sewing.
Stitch. stitch, stitch; rock. rock, rock.
Would that stitching and rocking never
stop?
"But pshaww thought Harry Har-
court. ''What right have to be un-
easy? A woman's work is nothing. Let
her stitca and let her rock. It's what
women are made for"
Still he could not help reclining there
and watching her.
The clock struck eleven, and still her
silent, weary work went on; and, as
Harry Harcourt gazed, he fancied that
her entire brain and bedy became tram
sparent, and he could see himself re-
dected in her thoughts as he had never
seen himself before. eyes, yes" she
soliloquised, and her mental thoughts
thrilled him like electricity, "Harry
thinks he is the head of this family,
and its only provider. stay and support.
But bless him. he doesn't know. Iguess
I'll retire from the firm and give him
much-needed lesson"
And sae bent low over the cradle
and kissed the sleeping baby, and even
while he gazed at her she disappeared.
What had become of her?
Harry Harconrt arose from his couch
and put on his clothes and approached
the cradle reverently and cautiously.
Near it was her low recking-chair, and
by its side the heaped up work basket,
and her scissors, spool and thimble.
On the floor which was yet damp from
the after supper hopping it had receiv-
ed when himself and children were in
bed, lay a promiscuous> array of old
clothes washed, ironed, patched and
mended by her patient fingers. He
gathered up the worn carmen one by
one, and IS he touched them, felt that
they were warm with the wasted life
forces of his pale-faced wife.
The night passed away, morning
roseate and radiant beamed in at the
curtained windows where Harry Har-
court sat watching. The baby awoke
and began its usual wailing cry. He
tried hard to pacify it with the nursing
bottle his wife had provided the night
before, but it refused to be comforted-
aforementioned seeing its mother shake
1t into a few extra screams, followed
by season of quietude, but when he
tried the experiment it did not succeed.
What was he to do?
The older children were up by this
time. clamoring and hungry and cold.
He knocked them to the right and left
with his open hands and scolded them
into trembling silence.
where's my mama?"
The unanswerable question was re-
peated over and over until Harry Har-
court grew frantic with suspense and
grief and bewilderment.
The pile of mending had not been
all completed, and the many missing
buttons made it very inconvenient for
him to dress the children properly for
Sabbatl school.
The breakfast was complete fall
ure. The children could not eat bis
primitive cooking, and the baby's wall
ing cries racked his nerves-strong and
healthy as he was-till he was desper-
ate enough to almost strangle it.
Dinner was more perplexing III cal
for him to prepare than breakfast. He
whipped Ben and Billy to make them
wash the dishes, and whipped them
even harder when they broke half Of
them into shapeless mass by letting
the dish-pan fall.
Monday came at last, and after a
sleepless night with the wailing baby,
Harry Harcourt went once more
through tie perplexing work of the
morning In the kitchen.
And then came the washing.
A wearier, crosser man than Harry
Harcourt never sat down to a cold
dinner.
The children skulked in the corners,
and fairly forget to play at tandem
teaming. In few days their clothes
wore out again, and be could not patch
them, nor could he get away from the
house to earn or even buy new ones.
His own garments grew buttonless, and
his food was unexpectedly indigestible.
When Harry Harceurt looked in the
glass, he found himself growing pale,
| like his vanished wife. "Ne wonder she
grew white and thin, poor thing" he
sighed sadly. 81 shall die before many
days if I have to carry all the respen-
sibility on my shoulders without assist