Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1884-02-14
The Two Mrs. Tucker.

here and there with paths the geese
had made in their daily journeys to
the pond below. and only approached
at the back by lane to the great red
barn and Q riekery board gate set be-
tween two posts of the rail fence
This was Wealthy Ann fuckers
homecoming. She had married
Amsss that morning at her fathers
house in Stanton, little village 20
miles away from Peet's mill, the town
within whose wide limits lay the
Tucker farm, and had come with him
this early spring afternoon in the old
wagon behind the bony horse that did
duty for Amssss family carriage.
Wealthy liked better to work for
her uncle than for stepfather with
six secondary children, but she
thought it would he better still to
have house Of her own; SO she agreed
to marry Amasa Tucker, and this was
her homecoming.
She went to the shed for material to
make her fire. 1t was almost sun
down and she was hungry, but she
found only the scantiest supply of wood
ana few dry chips for kindliug
However. she did her best, and she
herself brought some provisions from
home, 80 that she managed to lay out
decent supper on the rickety table
by the time Amasa came stumplng in
from the barn.
He looked disapprovingly at the pie,
the biscuit, the shaved beef and the
jelly set before him. .
~ hope ye amt a waster
Wealthy" he growled. "There's
vlttles enough for township, and the
amt but two of US.
"Well, our folks sent EN- over and
YOU no need to eat EN-" she answered,
cheerily.
II ant goin' to; don't ye break in
to that jel!. set it by; some time or
nuther somebody may be acomin' and
you'll want of il" ..-
Wealthy said no more; they made
a supper of biscuit and beef, for the
pie also was ordered 'set by"
She was used to economy, but not
to stingness, and she excused this ex-
treme thrift in her husband more
easily for the reason that she had been
always poor, and she knew very we'll
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 20 draw and fetch
all the water she used from an old
fashioned we'll with heavy sweep,
picturesque to see, but wearisome to
use; wood was scarce, for though
enough grew on the hundred acres that
Amasa owned he grudged its use.
ii shan't cut down no more than is
really needful'" he said, when she
urged him to fetch her load; woods
alters GROWN when ye don't cut 1t.
and a maxim for lumber; and iumber's
better to sell sight than cord-wood.
Ye must git along somehow with
brush; mother used ter burn next
to nothin'."
She did not remind him that his
mother was almost double with rheu-
matlsm and died with the fifth attack
of pneumonia. Wealthy never wasted
words.
Then there we're eight cows to milk,
the milk to strain, churn or make into
cheese and nothing but the simplest
utensils to do it with.
Then to her belonged the feeding of
the pigs-gaunt, lean animals with
sharp snouts, ridgy backs, long legs
and thin hanks, deep-set eyes that
gleamed with intelligent malice and
and never. sated hunger. Wealthy
grew almost afraid Of them when they
clambered up on the rails of the pen in
their fury for food, and tapped their
pointed ears at her, squealing and
fighting for the scant tare that she
brought. For Amasa an1erfed and
overworked everything belonging to
him.
add to all this the cooking, wash
ing, baking and sewing, the insufficient
supply of pork, potatoes aud tough
pies, "bolled dinners, whose strength |
lay in the vegetable rather than in the
small square Of pork cooked with them,
of which Amasa invariably took the
lions share. These accumlatlng and
Hever-ceasing labors all wore day by |
day on the vitality of Mrs. Tucker,
and when to these were added an an
nual baby, life became terror and a
burden to the poor woman.
One by one the wailing puny chill
dren were laid away in the little yard
on the top of sand hill, where the
, old fuckers and their half.dozen in
fants lay already; rough inclosure, full
of mulleins, burdocks and thistles,
over.run with low blackberry vines
and surrounded by rail fence, Two
children Of Wealthy's survived, ,Amasa
and Lurans, the Oldest and youngest
of seven.
Amasa, considerate intelligent
boy who thought much and said little
and Lurana, or ''Lury" as her name
was generally gwen, mischievous,
self-willed little imp, the delight and
torment OF her little worn out mother.
Young Amasa was boy quite beyond
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