Milford chronicle., 1885-03-13
A FARMHOUSE TRAGEDY.
BY MARION HARIAND.

As a provision Of political and domestic
economy, it is well that there is an overplus OF
dying human worms Of the mother-seX in the
Land of Pilgrims, when death and insanity
are in close attendance to pick up those who,
from weakness, stagger out Of the marching
column.-Eoe's Daughters.
"It makes no difference Not the
least in the world /" When a woman
says that, she either means exactly what
she utters, or emphatically the reverse.
Any other woman understands her. The
average man takes her at her word.
Tilly Burney glanced apprehensively
at her mother. Her father said:
"Mother'n' I want that you young
folks sh'd hev a good time. We old
ones II stay to hum'n' keep house.
IS too late in the day for us to ketch
larks."
Mrs. Burney had not seemed at all
like herself for several months. While
performing every task with mechanical
diligence, she had grown taciturn and
gloomy and, when not busy with regular
household duties. had a way of with
drawing herself from the family circle to
her own room, and, if she remained with
the others, sat aloOf in listless quiet.
She was quite well, she declared. She
wished people wouldn't take notions
about her. Once she had told Tilly,
her favorite daughter, to ''mind her own
business r.
There was a great deal of business to
be minded. Like all farmers, Luke
Burney was a chronic grumbler, but this
season he found less fault with Prov
idence and appauded his own manage
ment more often than he had had occl-
sion to do within the memory of his eldest
born. Dairy, poultry yard, garden, and
field had yielded bOunteOus increase OF
prospective profit to his bank store, and
of positive labor to his Wife's hands
Up at four j. the morning to look after
milk, baking, and the breakfast for the
"men-folks," she filled every minute
with tasks stated and incidental, until,
hours after the rest retired, she sought
the pillow that often brought another
form of solicitude instead of surcease Of
care. When there was so much to be
done it was but natural that she should
lie awake to plan the morrow's oper-
ations; as natural, she deemed it, that
much planning should bring doubts and
breads as to the success Of her schemes.
Luke Burney was not, in one sense, a
covetOus man. He would not have
cheated an enemy of half cent; rem
dered to customers fair measure and
weight; asked of the Lord only that
which he honestly earned. His view OF
desert was not perhaps invariably coin
cident with the Lords. 1t Is certain
that he wanted more than he had ever
yet received. The gnawing greed OF
men in his craft and station, expressing
itself in the slow accretion of cent upon
cent, the adding of dollar to dollar, and
the dogged grip of mind and fist upon
the tardy hoard, is inconceivable by
those who have not studied the action OF
avarice on narrowed minds.
Mrs. Burney did not care for money
for moneys sake. Her husband did;
and her part in the earthly life was to
serve him. She was an orphan and
sehoolmistress when Luke Burney Of
fered her the only real home she had ever
known. Her contribution to the plen-
ishing of the farmstead was a melodeon
and bookcase tolerably well stocked
with standard works. She 'led the
singing" in church until, babies at first,
then the woes of them who make haste,
however slowly, to get rich, made her
attendance upon public worship irregu-
lar. By the time the children were
grown her voice was cracked by the
steam of suds and the dry heat of cook
ing stove; her fingers were too stiff for
the melodeon keys, and her mind too
stiff for the books she used to enjoy.
eff Luke cared for such things it
would be different" she would say to
herself. "Or, if I had been intellectual
Being only intelligent, wasn't likely to
keen up by myself. "
Mind has some OF the properties OF
matter. Compressibility is one the two
hold in common.
''Matter" had worked hard, even for
her, all this year. The cark of 'n1ust-
be-dones" had bound her soul as to a
body of death, over which her watch
was like that of Rizpah. the daughter Of
Allah, from the beginning Of harvest
until now that the ''slack season" in
mid-September gave her a breathing
spell.
The first full breath was drawn in a
combined Sunday school picnic, the
churches of Infield and Exfield putting
forth their strength to accomplish a
creditahle affair. The Burney girls,
Mary and Tilly; the Burney boys. Sam,
Joe and James, were early enlisted in
the enterprise, of which the most novel
feature was to be a brass band from
town. After the suggestion that they
could secure and afford this became a
certainty, every egg heater and every
rolling pin in the township moved to the
imagined strains Of national airs and
popular quicksteps. Mrs. Burney would
have heen ashamed to confess how the
thought of the band moved her. She
bad not heard one in a quarter of CEN
turv. There is always enough to keep
a neutrality-suspicious. at home; too
much more than enough when wife,
housekeeper, cook, laundress, seamstress
and mother is the s'smart" help.meet Of
1...E I-y1a- nF..r Tlr.,r.o-.