Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1886-03-03
WORN OUT.

No, she was not strong; she had never
been very strong. Farmer Grey knew it
when he married her. Eight children cah-
sd her mother. She l. 20 all their clothes
ard did her own house work, and jet
"mother was not strong"
Farmer Grey said it often, and always re-
gretfully. Perhaps he was unselish to
wish that she were stronger for her own
sake, but fear not. He was very robust,
active man, and exceedingly anxious to
'sgct along" in the world. Therefore, fear
that his regret for mothers feebIeness was
simuly :: regret that. she could not do
more 10 AID him iu his getting along"
schemes.
She herself regretted That she was not
stronger.
"Fa,ber works so bard" she would cay
| II feel that am not as much help TO him
as [ might be If | We're real strong wo-
| mau."
What more would she have done? What
| more could she have done? AND, most OF
all, what more should she have done?
She kept the house in order. She did a
loving, God-learing mothers duty by her
children She was up early and to bed late.
She was busy every hour of tho day. She
MIXED and made butter, worked in her
garden, cooked for hands," raised and
sold chickens, but never mad q dollar of her
own.
She could, and did, "when father was
rushed" go out into the fields and drop
corn for half day, and then come into her
hot, stufy little kitchen aud get dinner for
fourteen people, and yet-'molher was not
strong"
She often wondered if she would ever be
strong. She would sit ;iown on the kitchen
doorstep SONS nights long after all the 9th
| ers were in he'd, drcaGing tie coming of the
marrow, and hoping IL Wouldn't be so very
hot. She was afraid she might ''give out"
She would lean her aching mead against the
unpainted door frame, c:1ss iet tired hands
listlessy in her lap, closes her eyes, and
wonder" about many things.
Some OF her neigbbors, with families only
half as large as her own, kept strong
hired girl in the kitchen the yelr around.
She often wondered vaguely now it would
seem TO have girl in i,er Hitchen; she won
dered how it would seem for her to be away
from home over night.
The fondest hope of hc. life LII ten gears
| had been that she nieh! visit her mother,
| who lived 200 oies away. She said she
| wouldn't be afraid to 90 such long ways"
alone, and "father" had often said she
should go if such and such Il thing turned
oct we'll"
These things often turned out well, !" but
mother never made that yisit--no never.
One thing and another" she said, ...kept
her at home and one Day n message came
bringing the news of her mothers death.
She would have liked to so even then 10 see
once more that beloved face even though it
was cold in death
But father said, that, seeing az she
couldn't Go any good, there was no use
wearing herself out making the trip" so she
stayed at homo. grateful 10 father for his
thoughtfulness in not wanting her to wear
herself out"
But she was so utterly worn out one day,
so worn ont in body and mind and soul,
that when she clasped her tired hands over
her breast in sleep they were never un-
clasped again in this world. There was no
response of"Yes, I'm coming" when father
called her in the gray dawn of November
morning.
One Father who had truly loved her, and
who had helped her bear her heavy bur-
dens through all these twenty years, had
called her in the night, and think she was
glad to say: Eyes, Father, I'm coming."-
n Ouu5