Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1884-02-28
The Two Mrs. fuckers.

you make the fire while 1 put tht
hoss out" said Amassa Tucker, as ht
opened the back door of gray house, SCI
on top of treeless hill, tracked here anG
there with paths the geess had made il
their daily journeyings to the pond be
low, and only approached at the back 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 at her fathers house, in Stan
ton, twenty miles away from Peet's 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 Amasas family car
riage.
Mrs: Tucker was tall, thin young wo-
man, with sad, reticent face, very silent
and capable. These last traits had been
her chief recommendation to her hus-
band. There was no sentiment about the
matter. Old Mrs Tucker had died two
weeks before this marriage, but Amasa
was "forehanded," and knowing his
mother could not live long, had improved
his opportunities-had been "sparkin'
Wealthy Ann Minor all winter, in judi
cious 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, whei
he found this alert, firm jointed, handy
girl living at her uncle's, who was wild
over, on great farm the other side of
the village. .Amasa made her acquaintance
as soon as possible and proceeded to fur
ther intimacy. Wealthy liked better to
work for her uncle than for Step-father
with six secondary children, but she
thought it better still to have a house of
her own; so she agreed to marry Amasa
Tucker, and this was her home coming.
She opened the door into dingy room
with an open fireplace at one end, win
dow on the north and one on the south
side, small. paned with old. green, and
imperfect glass, and letting in but just
enough light to work by. One corner, to
the north, was partitioned off to make d
pantry, and door by the fireplace led
into the woodshed. The front of the
house contained two rooms. One opened
into the kitchen, and was a bed room,
furnished sparsely enough, the other was
parlor, with high backed, ruSh-bottOmed
chairs against the wall, round table in
the middle, fireplace with brass hand
irons and fire-irons. family Bible on the
table, and a 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
its dingineSs could ever be called fresh
and a straight backed sofa covered with
gIeen and yellow glazed chintz, made as
dreary an apartment as could well be i'm
agined. Wealthy shut the door behind
her quickly, and went to the shed for ma
terial to make her fire. 1t was almost
sundown, and she was hungry; but she
found only the scantiest supply of wood
and few dry chips of kindling. How
ever, r,she did her best, ,and she had brought
some provisions from home, so that she
managed to lay out decent supper on
the ricksty table by the time Amasa came
stamping in from the barn.
He looked disappIovingly at the pie,the
biscuit, the shaved beef, and the jelly set
before him.
Il hope you amt waster, Wealthy"
he growled. ''Theae's vittles enough for
a township, and there amt but two of
u.s.
well, our folks sent 'em over; and you
no need to eat 'eIn," she answered, cheer
lily.
Il amt goin' to; don't break into that
jell; set it by; sometime or nurther some
body may be comm and YOU'LL want of
it"
Wealthy said no more; they made
supper of biscuit and beef, for the pie
was also set by
She was used to economy, but not to
and she excused this extreme
thrift in her husband more easily for the
reason that she had been always poor, and
she knew very well that he was not rich
to say the least. But it was only the be-
ginning.
Hard as Wealthy had worked at her
uncIes, here she found harder burdens;
she had to draw and fetch all the water
she used from an old-faShioned well with
a 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 it's
use.
Il shant cut down no more than is
really needful." he said, when she urged
him to fetch her a load; woods alters
CROWN when We don't cut it, land a maxim
for lumber; and lumber's better to sell, a
sight, than cord wood. YOU must git
along somehow with brush; mother used
ter burn next to OnOthin'.
She did not remind him that his moth
er was bent double with rheumatism, and
died of the fifth attack of pneumonia.
Wealthy never wasted words.
Then there were eight cows to milk, the
milk 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 strainer;
the pals themselves 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 the chimney that it
might not freeze there in the winter, and
only aired by one Slated window; the
churn was an old wooden one with
dasher, and even the 'spaddIe' with which
she worked her butter was whitfield out
of maple knot by Amasa himself, and
was heavy and rough.
Then to her belonged the feeding of
the pigs-gaunt, lean animals with sharp
snouts, ridgy backs, long legs and thin
tianks. deep-set eyes that cleaned with
intelligent malice and never-sated hun
ger. Wealthy grew almost afraid of
them when they c1ambered up on the
rails of the pen in their fury for food,
and tapped their pointed ears at her,
squeallng and fighting for the scant fare
that she brought. For Amasa underfed
and oyerwOrked everything that belonged