Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1886-02-03
Worn Out.

No, she was not strong. she had new
er been very strong. Farmer Grey
knew it when he married her. Eight
children called her mother. She made
all their clothes and did her own
homework, and yet ''mother was not
strong"
Farmer Grey said it often, and al
ways regretfully. Perhaps he was I'M
selfish enough to wish she we're strong
er for her own sake, but | fear not.
He was a very robust, active man, and
exceedingly anxious to "get along" in
the world. Therefore, fear that his
regret for mothers feebleness was SIM
ply a regret that she could not do more
to aid him in his "getting along"
schemes.
She herself regretted that she was
not stronger.
"Father works so hard" she would
say, ''I feel that I am not as much
help to him as l might be If | we're a
real strong woman"
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 loving, God-fearing mothers
duty by her children. She was up
early and to bed late. She was busy
every hour of heday. Shemilked and
made butter, worked in her garden,
cooked for ''hands," raised and sold
chickens, but never had dollar of her
own.
She could, and did, "when father
1no ont int ho folds nd
drop corn for half a day, and then
come into her hot, stuffy little kitchen
and get dinner orfourteen people, and
yet" mother was not strong"
She often wondered if she would ever
be strong. She would sit down on the
kitchen doorstep some nights long aft
er all the others were in bed dreading
thecoming ofthe morrow, and hopingit
wouldn't be so very hot. She was
afraid she might ''give out" She
would lean her aching head against
the implanted door frame, cross her
tired hands hstlessly in her lap, close
her eyes, and wonder" about many
things.
Some of her neighbors, with families
only half as large as her own, kept
strong hired girlin the kitchen the year
around.
She often wondered vaguely how it
would seem to have a girl in her
kitchen; she wondered how it would
seem to her to be away from home
over night.
The fondest hope of her life for ten
years had been that she might visit
her mother who lived two hundred
miles away. She said she wouldn't be
afraid to go ''such along ways" alone,
and father had often said she should
go if "such and such a thing turned out
WE'LL"
These things often turned out well,
but mother never ms lie that visit, no,
never.
Zone thing and another" she said,
except her at home;" and one day a
message came bringing the news of her
mothers death. She would have liked
to 90 even then to see once more that
beloved face even though it was cold
in death.
But father said that, 'seeing as she
couldn't do any good there was no use
wearing herself out making the trip"
so she stayed at home, grateful to
father for his thoughtfulness in not
wanting her to Swear herself out"
But she was so utterly worn out one
day, so worn out in body and mind
and soul, that when she clasped her
tired hands over her breast in sleep
they were never unclasped again In
this world. There was no response of:
eyes, I'm coming" when father called
her in the gray dawn of November
morning.
One Father who had truly loved her,