, 1884-03-08
THE TWO MRS. FUCKERS


to the pond below, and only approached at
the back by n lane to the great red barn and
a rickety board gate set between two posts
of the rail fence. JH -.g ~ .-tHs nl
This was Wealthy Ann fuckers home-com-
ing. She had married Amasa that morning
at her fathers korse IN Stanton. a little vii
lage twenty miles away froas Psets Mills.
the town within who's wide limits lay the
Tucker farm; and had come home with him
this early spring afternoon I'm the old wagon
behind the bony horse that did the duty for
Amasahs family carriage. ..rtrr
Mrs. Tucker was a tall, thin young woman,
with a sad ~reticent face, very silent and
capable. These 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
marriage, but AinAsa was @~forehanded," and
knowing his mother could not live long, had
improved his opportunities, and had been
Hsparkin'" Wealthy Ann Minor all winter In
judicious provision for the coming event of
his solitude. M ,-.t4 rta
He had thought the thing all over, and con-
cluded that a wife was cheaper than a hired
girl, and more permanent: so, when he found
this alert, f~rm-jointed, handy girl living at
her ~uncle's, who was a widower on a great
farm the other side of the village, Amasa
nef ACQUAINTANCE a. hOOu Us pOahiDiu
and proceeded to further intimacy. Wealthy
liked better to work for her uncle than for
n father with six secondary children, but
she thought it would be better still to nave a
house OF her own; SO she agreed to marry
Amasa Tucker, and this was her shome-
coming.
She opened the door into a dingy room with
an open fireplace at one end, q window on
the north and one on the south side, small,
PANIED with old, green and imperfect glass,
and letting in but just enough light to work
by. One corner, to the north, WINS parti-
sioned off to make a pantry, and a door by
the fireplace led out into the woodshed. The
front of the house contained two rooms. One
opened into the kitchen and was a bedroom,
furnished sparsely enough; the other was a
parlor. with ~high-backed rush-bottomed
chairs against the walls, a round table in the
middle, a fireplace with brass andirons and
ireirons, a family Bible on the table and a
mourning piece" painted In ground hair on
the mantel. Green paper had and white
cotton curtains, a rag carpet fresh as II came
from the loom-if its dinginess could ever be
called fresh-and n straight backed sofa
covered with green and yellow glazed chintz,
made as dreary an apartment as could well
be imagined. Wealthy shut the door behind
her quickly, and went to the shed for material
TO make her fire. 1t was almost shutdown
md she was hungry; but she found only the
y~csntiest supply OF wood and a few dry chips
Tor kindling. However. she did her best, and
she had brought some provisions from home,
70 that she managed to lay out a decent sup
per on the rickety table by the time AmAsa
came stamping in from the barn.
He looked disapprovingly at the pie, the
biscuit, the shaved beef and the jelly set
before him.
q hope ye amt a wasser, Wealthy" he
yrowled.
There's vittles enough for a township, and
the amt but two of u.s."
swell. our folks sent 'em over; and you no
need to eat EN- she answered, cheerily.
II ant goin' to; don't ye break into that
'ell, set 1t by; sometime or nuther somebody
nay be a comm and you'll want OF it.p
Wealthy said no more; they made a supper
If biscuit a>d beef, for tho pie was ordered
set by
She was used to economy, but not to
stinginess, and she excused this extreme
thrift of her husband more easily for the
reason hat she had been always 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
mcle's, hero she found harder burdens; she
had to draw and fetch all the water she used
from an old fashioned well with a heavy
weep, picturesque to see, but wearisome to
ise; Woo was scarce, for though enough
grew on the hundred acres that Amasa owned
he grudged its use.
al sha'nt cut down no more than Is really
aeedful," he said when she urged him to
fetch her a load; woods alters a CROWN
when ye don't cut IL, and a maxim for hum.
Der; and lumber's bsttsr to sell, n sight, than
sordwood. Yc must git along somehow with
brush; mother used to burn next to nothin'. y
She did not remind him that his mother
was bent double with rheumatism, and died
sf the fifth attack of pneumonia Wealthy
never wasted words,
Then there were eight cows to milk, the
nlk to strain. set, skim. churn or make into
cheese, and nothing but the simplest utensils
TO do with. A cloth held over the edge OF
the pail served for a strainer; the pals them
selves were heavy wood, the pans old and
some of them leaky, the holes stopped with
bits of rag, often to be renewed; the milk.
room was in the shed, built against thu
chimney that IL might not freeze there in the
winter, and only aired by one small Slated
window: the churn was an old wooden
one with a dasher, and even the aspaddle'
with which she worked her butter was whit
tied out of a maple knot by Amasa himself,
and wns heavy and rough.
Then to her belonged the feeding of thu
pigs-gaunt, lean animals with sharp shouts
ridgy backs, long legs and thin TANKS, deep
set eyes that cleaned with intelligent malic,
and never-sated hunger. Wealthy grew
almost afraid OF them when they clamberec
up on the rails of the pen in their fury fol
food and Topped their pointed ears at her
sntta.1fn@ aud arhts-n. TO- a.. 5000 - 49,
she brought. For Amasa underfed and over
worked everything that belonged to him.
Then there were hens to look after-the old
fashioned barn-door ~creepers" that wantec
food, too, and yet catered for themselves II
great measure and made free with barn anC
woodshed for a Of their own quarters
and were decimated every season by hawks
owls, skunks, wessels and foxes, to sa,
nothing of the little chickens on which crow
and cats worked their will II they dared L
stray beyond the ruinous old coop ~contrivec
for them by Amasa's inventive genius out O
sticks and stones.
Add to this the cooking, washing, bakin,
and sewing, the insufficient supply OF pork
potatoes and tough pies, the "biled dinners,
whose strength lay In the vegetable ratheI
than In the small square OF fat pork cookeS
with them, OF which Amasa invariabl,
took the lions share. These accumulates
and neyer-ceasing lnboB all wore day b,
day ON the vitality Of Mrs, Tucker, and whei
to these were added the annual baby, lif
became a terror and burden TO the poo
woman.
Blu what did Amnsa carei he, too, worke,
from sun to SUM-
He farmed In the hard old fashion witt
rude instruments and no knowledge but
MY father done IL afore me. so 1 am