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

that I would never acknowledge was g
load when she had to carry it."
The baby cried harder and louder
than ever, and Harry Harcourt felt
himself sinking lower and lower in
health and strength, till finely he fell
sprawling on the floor, from which he
arose at last, rubbing the s,crszy-bone"
of his right elbow, and staring around
the room IN state of somi-conscious-
ness.
"What in the worlds the matter,
Harry Harcourt?" asked his pale-faced
wife in alarm.
care you really there, Fanny?" he
asked, eagerly. 81 thought you we're
dead, darling!"
"No, Harry, Pm not dead yet, but I
shall be before long at this rate" was
the despairing reply. I've been mend
| ing the children's clothes for three
hours while you've been snoring"
"And you haven't been away at all?'
II been away2 Why, Harry, you
must be crazy! How could get away,
I'd like to know? With all these backs
to clothe and mouths to feed, to say
nothing Of washing, ironing, churning,
scrubbing and taking care of the baby.
I've too many responsibilities here to
think of going away unless death calls
me. And to tell, the truth, Harry, /
don't think it will be very long before
ana called, for my strength is failing
rapidly, and | have frequent sinking
spells. have felt a haf-doEen times
| tonight as if I would sink through the
floor. But then it isn't any matter.
Maybe when I am gone you can get a
| wife wis can manage better and spare
you the humiliation of seeing your
children out at the knees and elbows"
"Wife, your husband has been a
confounded selfish. short-sighted idiot,
and you've been silent, suffering
ANGELO exclaimed Harry Harcourt,
clasping her in his strong arms, and
seating himself in her rocking. chair,
with her head resting on his bosom.
| "I've had dream, dear, and I've lived
through q whole week of your daily
| life in the last three hours, and [ swear
| to you, by all that's holy, that if I live
until Monday morning there will be
strong help provided for you in the
kitchen, and you shall have all the
| money you want to buy clothes for you
and the children. And I'll never say
again that you've nothing to do. Why,
| there isn't man in America who could
live as long as you have and do the
work that you have done for ten years,
or ever since we've been married"
1.-THE work is the very smallest part
CT my trials, Harry. I've been moth
er to all these children in that time,
you know"
Harry Harcourt hadn't thought of
that before; but he considered it now.
And he became at once g. strong and
earnest advocate of equal rights for
men and women, with the added right
of women to protection from hard labor
while bearing children.
IF you want to hear an unanswerable
argument upon the woman question at
any time, you've only to say in my heros
hearing that women are supported by
men, while men make the living. In
short, he has snapped his old hobby
horse of masculine supremacy for the
new and perfect one of feminine equal
| ity. His conamon pale faced wife has
regained herr old-time girlish grace and
ruddiness, aud there is no better man
aged household in all the land than
hers. Harry Harcourt did not buy the
| thousand dollar horse he had set his
heart upon, but he restored in its stead
the happy, loving b cart that had well
nigh been estranged from him through
his former acts of greed and selfish
ness.