The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1884-02-07
The Two Mrs. fuckers.
by LOSE TERRY COOKE.

"You can make the fire while / put
the hoss out, said Amasa Tucker, as he
opened the back door of "a gray house,
set on top of treeless hill, tracked
here and there with paths the geese
had made in their daily journeys to the
pond below, and only approached at
the lack by lane to the great red
barn. and rickety board gate set
between two posts of the rail fence.
This was wealthy Ann fuckers
home coming. She had married
Amasa that morning ut her fathers
house in Stanton, little village
twenty miles away from Poets Mills,
the town within whose wide limits lay
the Tucker farm, and had come home
with him this early spring afternoon in
the old wagon behind the bony horse
that did duty for Amasa's family car
riage.
Mrs. Tucker was tall, thin young
woman, with sad, reticent face, very
silent and capable; the last traits had
been her chief recommendation TO her
husband. There was no sentiment
about the matter Old Mrs. Tucker
had died two weeks before this mar
riage, but Amasa was "fore-handed,
and knowing his mother could not live
long had improved his opportunities
and been "sparkin" Wealthy Ann Minor
all winter, in judicious provision for
the coming event of his solitude.
He had thought the thing all over,
and concluded that wife was cheaper
than a hired girl, and more permanent;
so when he found this alert, frm-joint-
ed, handy girl living at her uncle's,
who was q wiaower on a great farm the
other side of the village, Amasa made
her acquaintance as soon as possible
and proceeded to further intimacy.
Wealthy liked better to work for her
uncle than for step-father with six
secondary children, but she thought it
would be better still to have house of
her own; so she agreed to marry
Amasa Tucker, and this was the homo
coming
She opened the door into a dingy
room with an open fireplace at one
end, q windo~ on the north al d one on
the south side, small, paned with old,
green and imperfect glass, and letting
IN but just enough light to work Iby.
One corner, to the north, was petit
toned off TO make pantry, and door
by Che fireplace led out into the wood
she'd The front of the house con-
tanned two rooms. One opened into
the kitchen and was q bed room, fur
nished sparsely enough; the other was
a parIor, with high-backed rush-bot-
toned chairs against the wall, round
table III the middle, n fireplace with
brass andirons, and fire-irons, family
Bible on the table, and mourning
piece" painted in ground hair on the
mantel. Green paper shades and
white cotton curtains, rag carpet
fresh as it came from the loom-if It's
dinginess could ever be called fresh
and straightforward sofa covered with
green and yellow glazed chintz, made
as dreary an apartment as could we'll be
imagined. Wealthy shut the door be-
hind her quickly, and went TO the shed
for material to make her fire. IL was
almost shutdown and she was hungry !;
but she found only the scantiest supply
of wood, and few dry chips of kim
ding. However she did her best, and
che h0d brought some provisions from
home, so that she managed to lay out
adecent supper on the rickety table, by
the time Amasa came stamping in from
Che barn.
He looked disaprrovingly at the pie,
the biscuit, the shaved beef, and the
Jelly set before him.
IL hope We amt waster. Wealthy"
no growled. There's vittles enough
for township, and the amt but two
ofns"
swell, our folks sent 'em over, and
You no need TO eat EN-" she answered,
cheerily
Il amt goin' to; don't you break into
that jell, set it by; sometimes or nuther
somebody may be comm, and you'll
want of it."
Wealthy said no more; they made q
supper of biscuit and beef, for the pie
also was ordered "set by"
She was used to economy, but not to
stinginess, and she excused this ex-
tTeme thrift in her husband more easily,
for the reason that she had always been
poor, and she knew very well that he
was not rich, to say the least But it
was only the beginning.
Hard as Wealthy had worked at her
uncle's, here she found harder burdens
she had to draw and fetch all the water
sire used from an old-fashioned well,
with heavy sweep, picturesque TO See