Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1885-04-03
HOW WE MADE A HOME


Ior ABOVE another IL Is tue auapJaOlllly OF
the human organism to its surroundings.
For to come rght down to the exact facts,
ii makes SO Little difference to us what
those surroundings are, so we are accuS.
toned to and are content with them.
There, did not intend TO read you
homily, but the idea would pop up when
| thought Of the changes j Ohm and | have
gone through, and the happy home we
really have made, out here alone on the
prairie
| must tell you first that John was the
son OF farmer, and never spent but oAe
winter of his life in the city, and that one,
the winter that he first met me.
| was tnc daughter of Il merchant in
small W y, and / now know that it was
the extravaganza of his family. and our
desperate struggle to SHOW oil as well
as our Weather acquaintanccs that kept
my father pressed for money and unable
to enlarge his business.
A little music II tritle of embroidery, Il
first dotted on south kcnsington stitch }
and IA fair dab at paints was II list of my
accom- lishmcnts, and the sum moreover,
of all my desires.
I'hi, is not a love story so | shall not
tell how it came about, but we were mar
rcd, John and |, early in the next sum
mer, and went onto the farm to live
But, alas, for our plans, Johns father
had also led a bride, his second wife, to
the altar only week after our marriage;
and-wc!l, you know the Old saying that
mo house was ever big enough for two
women, so possibly it was all the fault
of the sire of the house, but he that as it
may, we did not work happily together,
my husbands step mother and me.
When it came on winter John said |
had better 70 in town to fathers and
board, and he would take contract of
hauling, and so run in and see me every
day / was too proud to do this and so |
sad | would live ii the little -AIdyCe
house, where the farm hand family had
been living. John protested, but | was
firm, and down | went John and his
father brought load of things some beds
and boddi! &, and "a set of quaint pink old
dishes that had belonged to Johns mother
wien she was married.
There WAS new kitchen store that,
before our coming the housekcepcr had
discarded, declaring it would not draw
worth cent. | had always had n
lack" Of making wheels 20 in old clocks
applied my genius TO the stove, and after
a half hour of prying and pceping | drew
out a wedge of iron, and presto, the
stove was perfection.
But the worn paint on the interpreted
floor was an a6omination to me, and as
there we're quantities of old garments up
AT the house | determined to make the
thing that | had heard of but always de
spised-a rag carpet
/ How cut rags, and sewed rags, and
wound them into balls, counting them
over and over to see how nearly | was
done; meanwhile glancing longingly at
the painted nicknacks on the mantle, and
my box of paints on the little stand in the
corner.
But finished the carpet, and the very
day that John brought it home from the
weavers, and first after we had got
through admiring its bright stripes, he
looked up and sad to me: "Jenny, I'm
going out into Nebraska to take up land.
DO you SUPPOSE you could be happy
thcrc?"
Now | was very happy with John, but
it did mortity me whenever | met any of
my old society friends that had not an
elegant home TO which | could invite
them, and SO said eagerly:
80, yes, John, lets go, and go this
spring, too,
John was so pleased that he first caught
me up in his arms and swung me clear
around the kitchen, and then | know how
]
ton.
And with the early spring we started.
There We're four families of us, all
Johns Young acQuaintances, and we ma c
preparations together, but | wa, So sill,
that let them start with the wagons first
and | stayed all night al mother an badC
good bye TO all my acquaintance, and
went down and took the train. Fifty
miles out | stopped, and Johns CHEEKY
face never looked better to me
than when lie came to the plat
form and met me- and took me out
where the teams were. Regular prairie
sChOOners" they We're, more because of
my coaNing than anything else, Tor
could not hear or think of leaving the
handsome grey horses, nor even the two
lloistcin COWS behind, and declared
must have my stove, and rag-carpet, and
way, and here we were, four prairie
scLooners, and quite small drove OF
cattle that the men took turns in driving,
such a ride rs that was! How the boys
shot ducks, and prairie hens, and rabbits,
and we cooked Them around little fires, in
genuine gypsy fashion.
But we reached our destination at last
healthy and hungry, and brown, and the
very first thing we did was to make sod
houses AS our claims were taken
near together, we could see the
smoke from each of our fuuI
chimneys at the same time The velvety
green praires sweeping away in soft un
dulatng waves on all sides, until the very
sky came down and tucked US all into
our cosy green nest
And /, who had lived in rented house
all my life, could stand in the low door OF
our sod mansion, and gazing away TOWARD
the rising sun, realize that all that vas
extent, even further than the eye could
see. belonged to John and me.
And the housey You would be sur
prised to see how tidy aud comfortable i
was. The floor was hard and clean, anC
as John said, required no scrubbing
We had two large windows. to ADMIT thc
light, and Il warmer house in winter, anC
a cooler in summer was never invented
John said: Now that we've got all on
of doors lets raise something on It, 50
he planted his tree claim to mulberry ant
Usage orange, and all kinds of fruits ant
almost before we knew it we had ou
] farm fenced in with n a lr,1 ar un no ~