Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1884-01-26

wanted me, and so my time hadn't come
'Amasey, you're man grown now. and If
you should get married. and | s'pose you WILL
men folks seem to think it's needful whether or
no, do kinder make it easy for her, poor cretur!
Don't grind her down to skin and bone. like me-
dear ia mt just right, I'm sure ont, never to
make no more Of woman than eff she was a
horned critter; don't do it."
Mother, never will" answered the son. as
theoretically and solemnly as if he were taking
his oath.
But Wealthy was nearer to her rest than she
knew; the enemy that turks in dirt, neglect.
poor food. constant drudgery and the want of
every wholesome and pleasurable excitement to
mind or body, and when least expected swoops
down and does its fatal errand In the isolated
farmhouse no less than in the crowded city
Sums, the EcOurge of New England. typhoid
fever, broke ont in the Tucker homestead
Wealthy turned away from her weekly baking
one Saturday morning just as the last pie was
set on the broad pantry shelf and tainted on the
kitchen floor. where Amasa, the younger, found
her an hour after. muttering, delirous and cold.
What he could do then, or the village DOCTOR
or an old woman who called herself nurse was
all useless; but the best skill of any kind would
have been equally futile. She was never con-
sciOus again for week; then her eyes seemed
to see what was about her once more. She
looked up at her boy. laid her wan cheek On her
hand. smiled-and died.
Hardly had her wasted shape been put away
under the mullens and hard hack when her
W
the same plague. He was harder to conquer
Three weeks of alternate burning sinking
raving and chiils ended at last in the gray and
grim repose of death for him, and another
Amasa Tucker reigned alone in the old house
on the hill.
1t is not to be supposed that in all these wears
Amasa the younger had been blind to the
charms OF the other sex; he had not ''been with"
every girl who went to school with him, or
whom he met at singing schools or spelling
matches at m bar
bonnet. as he manfuy ''hed up his end' in the
village choir.
He had been faithful always to the shy, dell
cate dark-eyed little girl who was his school
sweetheart, and now it was to Mary Peet he
FASTENED to ask her to share his life and home
He had intended to take a farm on shares the
next summer, and work his way slowly upward
to place of his own; now he had this hundred
acre farm. and to his great surprise he found
$1,000 laid up in the bank at Poets Mills, the
slow savings of his fathers fifty years. He be-
gan at once to set his house in ORDER he longed
to build new one, but Mary's advice restrained
him. SO he did his best with this the cellar he
cleared and whitewashed with his own hands,
cleaned its one beSrimed window and set two
more. so that it was sweet and light; the house
was scrubbed from one end to the other; bon
fire made of the old dirty comfOrtables and
quilts; the kitchen reprinted soft yellow and
new windows with clear large glass set In place
of the dingy old sashes; the wood-heuse was
filled with dry wood and good store of pine
cones and chopped brush and kindling, A new
milk room was built but little way from the
back door over tiny brook that ran down the
hill north of the house. and under the Slated
floor kept up cool draught of fresh air. a
covered passage connected it wththe kitchen and
door into the old milk room made of that con-
venient pantry, while the removal of the old one
from the kitchen corner gave to that apartment
more room, air and light. A new stove, with a
set boiler. filled up the hearth of the old fire.
place, but further improvements Amasa left for
Mary.
A different Homecoming from his mothers
she had indeed. en- just such spring day as
Wealthy came there The kitchen shone clean
and bright a bowl of pink arbutus blossoms
made its atmosphere freshly sweet and the fire
was laid ready for her to light. the shining tea
kettle filled, and the pantry held such stores as
Amasas masculine knowledge of household
wants could suggest -four, butter eggs sugar
all were In abundance. and no feast of royalty
ever gave more pleasure to its most hOnOred
guest than the hot biscuit Mary made and
baked for theirsupper, the steWed dried apples
the rich old cheese and the fragrant tea gave
Amasa this happy evening. Next day they took
their wedding trip to Poets mills in the new and
sensible farm wagon Amasa had just bought
with strong. spirited horse to draw it.
Il want you should look around. Mary" he
had said the night before land see what is
needful here. | expect most everything is
wanting. and we can't lay out for finery. But
first OF all get whatll make your work easy
Your wedding present will come along tO-mor-
row; to-day we ii buy necessities
Mrs. Peet had not sent her only girl empty
handed to the new house. good mattress
two pairs of blankets, fresh. light, cOmfortables
and some cheap, neat white spreads; set of
gay crockery, clock, and roll of bright in
grain carpeting had all come to the farmhouse
soon after the brides ARRIVAL her ample supply
OF sheets and pillow cases. strong towels and a
few table-clOths had been sent the day before
so this sort of thing was not needed but there
was new churn bought, and altogether new
furnishings for the dairy, several modern inyen-
tions to make the work of woman easier a
set OF chairs, table, and an easy lounge for the
parlor some cretonne covered with apple bios
SONS and White-thOrn clusters, and pals, broOms
and tinware that would have made Wealthy a
happy woman, crowded the Cver-full wagon be-
fore they turned hOmeward
The old house began to smile and blossom I'M
der this new dispensation and the new mistress
smiled, too.
Amasa MIXED the cows for her and lifted the
heavy pals of milk to strain into the bright
new pans; he filed the woodbox by the stove
twice day, put patent pump into the old
well, and as it stood above the house ran q
pipe down into sink set I'm the woOdshed, and
so put an end to the drawing and carrying of
water.
The fat, round, placid pigs, that now enjoyed
themselves in the new pen he took care of him
self.
''Ta'nt for women folks" he said
Il gu We got enough TO do, Mary: there's the
garden you'll have an eye on and the chickens
fyou're mind to; I'm going to build hen
house, and yard to it right Off tiiatll be good
enough for you as well as the chickens; and
want you shall promise If any time the work
gets d mite hefty and worries you, you'll speak
right out. / can afford to have everything else
worn out rather than my wife"
Really. it paid! 1t does pay, my masculine
friends, to give any woman q kindly word now
and then; If you had done 1t Ottener or YOUR
fathers had in the past. the rights of women
never would have angered or bored you as they
do now; or unseXed and made strident and
clamOrous that half of creation which is and
always was unreasonable enough to have hungry
hearts Try it and see!
Amasa was wise above his generation: he had
seen his mother suffer. and learned a lesson
Mary never pined for kindly appreciation Of her
work. or help in 1t. When she had a door cut
through into the parlOr, the stiff chairs and sofa
banished the fOwery curtains hung at either
window. the gay carpet put down and the new
furniture set In place, with her wedding
present-an easy stuffed rocker-drawn I'D to
the table, on which lay two weekly papers and
Hdrpers Magazine she had still sense enough
left to make this hitherto sacred apartment into
real sitting room, where every evening she
and Amasa rested, read or talked over the DAVIS
doings: and when the first fat rosy baby came,
and Mary was about again, it added another
pleasure to have the old cradle beside them ali
evening with its sleeping treasure
Can tell I'm words what sense of peace and
cheer pervaded this household, in spite of some
failures and troubles? If the rye did blast one
year, the two best COWS die. another: if a
weasel jnvodQd ho