The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1884-03-01

| hard-dreadful hard. I've wished
more'n onGe could ha' laid down alone
with the little babies out there on the
hill, SOS to rest a spell; but there was
you and Lury 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 cret1lr!
Don't grind her down to skin and bone,
like me, dear; ta'nt just right, Pm sure
ont, never to make no more of a
woman than eff she was a horned critter;
don't do it.
Mother, [ never willr' answered the
son, as energetically 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 whole
some 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 slums the seourge
of New England, typhoid fever-broke
out in the Tucker homestead.
Wealthy turned away from her week
ly baking one Saturday morning, lust
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, delirious
and cold
What he could do then or the village
doctor, or an old woman who caHed
herself a nurse was all uselesAS, the
best skill of any kind would have been
equally futile. She was never con.
scious again for aweek; then her ewes
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 mulleins and hard
hack, when her husband came in from
the bayfield, smitten with the same
| plague. He was harder to conquer
Three weeks of alternate burning, sink
| ing, raving and chills, 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
those years 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 school or spelling
matches, or who smiled at him from
her Sunday bonnet, as he manfully
"held up his end in the village choir.
He had been faithful always to the
shy, delicate, dark-eyed little girl who
was his sweetheart, and now it was to
Mary Peet he FASTENED to ask her to
share his life and home. He had in
tended to take 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 $4,000 laid up
in the bank at Poets Mills, the slow
savings of his fathers fifty years. He
began 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 white washed with his own
hands, cleanedits one begrimed window
and set two more, so that it was sweet
and light The house was scrubbed
from one end to the other, bonfire
made of the old, dirty comfortables and
quilts, the kitchen reprinted soft yell
low and new windows, with clear large
glass set in place of the dingy old sashes.
The wood-house was filled with
dry wood and a good store of pine
cones and chopped brush and kind
ling, A new milk-room was built a
little way from the back door, over a
tiny brook that ran down the hill north
of the house. and under the Slated floor
kept up cool draught of fresh air, q
covered passage connected it with the
kitchen, and door into the old milk
room made of that a convenient pantry,
while the removal of the old one from
the kitchen corner gavC % that apart
ment more room, air and light. A
new stove, with a set boiler, filled up
the hearth of the old fireplace, but
further improvements Amasa left for
May.
A different homecoming from his
mothers she had, indeed, on Just such
a spring day as Wealthy came here. The
kitchen shone clean and bright; bowl
of pink arbutus blossoms made its at
mosphere freshly sweet, and the fire
was laid ready for her to light, the
shining tea-kettle filled, and the pantry
held such stores as Amasa's masculine
knowledge of household wants could
suggest; flour, butter, eggs, sugar, all
in abundance, and no feast of royalty
ever gave more pleasure to its most hon
ored guest than the hot biscuit Mary
made and baked for their supper; 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.
II want you should look around,
Mary" he had said the night before,
and see what is needful here. | expect
most everything is wanting, and we
can t lay out for tnery But first of
all, get what'll make your work easy.
Your weddin' present will come along
tomorrow; to-day we'll buy necessi-
ties"
Mrs. Peet had not sent her only Girl
empty-handed to the new house. A
good mattress, two pairs of blankets,
fresh lirht aon1f Orta b1a o0J eo,,,a