New-York tribune., 1889-10-20

The cook stove had been taken out to the shed
early in the summer and they had used a small kero
sene cooking arrangement, as being cheaper. saran
knew she could not manage to lift the kitchen stove
! She had neighbor within a mile and she dsl ked
TO ask who really worked to come and bring Sim
sparkss stove in. She felt secret and ever growing
| convic ton that she herself could get the alright
! into the front room. She did not believe there was
any need that should act about stove tunnels
and that kind of thing. She knew they always swore
dreadfuly, and the pipe always too large or 700
small and they straddled round and spat, and Uttered
SCOT and ground 1t into the floor with their great
boots. She had said great many times that It was
harder TO clean up after had brought In Stove
than it to do the whole thing herself
Now she had thought It all out, she would make
tho children help though all OF them were Just iRe
their father and hated to stir the worst way, unless
they were playing They playing now, shfieh
ing like manacs or more properly, like boys, OUT
there By the woods. There were hVe OF thehl' all
boys She would get them In. There was no ulhe
like the present She looked at the sun and recKoned
she could just about do 1t before DARK that Is II she
could do 1t at all.
When she went TO the door to call the children she
saw a figure coming through the pasture in front OF
the house II had bag over its shoulder and MIS-.
Sparks presently recognized 1t as Mehitable Green
coming up from the Loring meadow, where She had
been picking cranherries after the ralers Mrs Sparks
halves" but she had had so much to do she couldn't
get to the meadow.
She went out to meet Mehitable, who was glad to
stop and who opened the bag and showed the berries
leaning weary the fence as she did so ana say
ing she wished she was to home.'
As Sarah poked about the contents OF the Dag she
said suddenly:
Il guess you en- help me If you have mine ter.
M I'll git you some tea afterward'
When Mrs Sparks explained why she needed as
ss ance Mchitable seized with tremor ana
began TO stammer and to say she didn't know as she
wanted TO help bring IN stove, lor tnat was "eH
work, want 1t
Mrs Sparks laughed somewhat scornfuly and said
she guessed If Mehitable had ben one of them women
that sim Sparks had married instid Of one no
| didn't she'd have done mems work many's
the time Then the speaker moderated her tone some
what and explained that an air-tght somehow seemed
some different, and If It would be proper that
feminine hands should be lad upon II Win h'eh' !"
move
Now Mehtable had never been married. II had
never been known even, whether any ono
had ever asked her hand in marriage although 1t was
surmised that there had been some one, wtdower'
who had once expressed intimate friend tho
belief that Miss Green would make good wife 10
him and good mother to his orphan children It
was a curious fact that, with this pointer the
gossps had been able to come to any cohoiusioh
as 10 what had been done In the matter
Mehitable had very declcate Ideas as to what was
really feminine and proper for woman 10 90 III tue
matter Of work. She said II there was one thng sho
wasn't IL was woman's Fighter She had all The
rights She wanted she asserted and always hao hau
she never meant 30 do anything that wasn't lady
| ike She had been told, and had read repeatedly
that men, the gentlemen,n she called them, did not
| Ike an unadyllke woman.
She was now fifty years old, with very long, uh-
steady yellow teeth and grtzZled, reddish hSf'
/ Heed
1ras called the old pike a mile and half away.
One Of the constant Of Mehitables life had ooh
IN know Just where to draw the line between n'onS
,orl and vomens work. She often remarked that IL
was very t!ttHsh thing to decide living as Sn9
aid what was ladylike and what was not
She generally hired boy to chop ther uasn "ooi'
.horcb u IL wasn't for the idea Of the thing, she
I'D do II rs well as not. but somehow, she DIDN'T
toe, IN her sphere doin' of IT, But she kopt
! COW milked It and took caro- OF H. She pcAou
bucklebsrries TO sell in the summer anu oarOorloS
rd cranberries in the fall. In the winter she TOOK
! IN straw hats to make If 1t was good year III
,rowp Meanwhile, at every odd moment summer
- .,rtor she read novels. She would say, with
',h. blusb that she liked strong love story
! ehe had a sneaking fondness for oudas BOOKS. but
+ os,sr she had heard her minister say
! oulda was "detestable," she always fet ratner
clicked in reading her. Possibly tha' loof
,sa Isnt a new zest 70 the pervsal Of that muoh-
abused author A., A.. t
/ ,,ohuabIe confessed once to her mother that she
/ - ,ried 10 leave of Ouida, but she couldn't do It,
cho smoke as If she might be referring to the NOR
/ bine habit She had pale eyes and deprecauhs
i,nrossion diffused her whole person ii she
Ira IN tho slightest degree excited or interested
/ &, any ones presence she began TO tremole and
roer As often as she went 10 the public IL
-. IN the village she could not yet calmly ask for
hor hook ! do not know what would have been
Ir sensations II she had had known that by the
ing assistant at the library she was invariably
called ouida'
ana 70 vrillin' to help me or not ?" asked Mrs.
-. ,oer the two had examined the cranberres
as long as they could.
aIt's lest my alright, IN I've got TO have it in
o vre shall an ketch our dea'hs'
awbere's Mr. Sparks ~ humbly inquired Meht
able
,rorld have described hollow laugh and re-
rIied that Sim had gone over TO Long Pond agun-
INC and she didn't know when he'd como back
# ,bey waited for him they'd all freeze stif.
Mehitahe said she hoped she was 'commydltn.
and she didn't know but She was wiHin' to ketch
holt somewhere m do what she could.
80 the two women won't to The shod where the
.,r,Ight stood on their way Mehtable was sa-
Iuted by the eldest Sparks boy as
aon Toothy7 In polite reference TO her
teeth He was promptly cufed by his
mother and reeled away bowling. but sti mutering
,,der hi. breath that she wa Old Toothy, anyway
The shed was a good ways from the house. close to
the edge of the wood where Mr. Sparks chopped down
his trees had been so placed that It might be
convenient for him.
There was a popularity about the arght stoveripe,
and This peculiarly was nccoss STATED by the position
Of the chimney, which Mr.. Sparks had decided to
have built on the outside of the house opening into
the kitchen consequently the pipe from the sitting
room had 10 be very long and TO 20 through hole