The Logan County banner. [volume] (Logan, W. Va.) 1889-1903, 1889-04-18
OUR WASH LADY.
How She Proved Herself Worthy
the Name.


That was just what she was Oh,
you need not smile. We smiled, too.
when we first heard her called q lady,
but. you see, we did not know her
then. 1t was neighbour calling at our
house who asked my mother ifshe had
trouble about the weekly wash, then
she said:
II will send you the lady who
washes for me. / am sure she will
suit you. We do not think we could
keep house without her."
After the caller went away we all
INDUCED in little mirth.
"The idear' said sister Julia, "a
lady to do our washing! Why, she
will expect us to wait on her."
"She will want to eat with the
family" remarked another.
1T is only a polite Western way OF
speaking said our mother, quietly, !
IF she does her work well we can
manage the rest. y -...------4
On the appointed day our "wash
lady" came. We expected a bold carl
cature Of modern style who would
make us feel how much she had con-
descended in coming to do our washing,
but when a gentle knock came at our
baekdoor, and We answered it-en-masse.-
there entered quiet little women
with soft brown hair just touched
with gray She was neatly dressed
in blue gingham, and after a few words
of instruction she turned to her work.
which she accomplished with ease and
MISUNDERSTANDING off her broad blue
checked apron only once, and that was
to tidy herself at noon.
Tell her to come in and eat her
dinner,n mother had said when we
rose from the table, -,
But she had cleared off little place
on the kitchen table and set cup and
plate there, and no persuasions would
induce her to come into the dining
!. room. When her work was done she
took her pay and went away as quietly
as she came, but she had made two
promisesT-one to little Charlie, our
lame boy, that she would bring him a
gingerbread horse, and one to mother
of recipe for domestic dye stuff All
the week little Charlie fretted for the
wash lady to come and bring the GIN
gerbread horse.
'.She will never think OF it again."
mother said to him, and then he went
into one Of his baby tempers, and cried
out:
..She will! She will! l know she
will cause she's a lady,
day we expected her and l never saw
happier child than Charlie was.
She had not asked him to kiss her, or
make friends, but when he lifted his
pitiful trembling lips to hers she took
him in her lap and kissed the soft
brown cprls and the white, waxen
hands.
.He's a bonny BARN." she said-did
Isay she was ScotchwomanP IAN
he's unco guide, put he's ma lang for
this world.
But mother told her how much better
he was since we had the cast made for
him, and the great doctor had
Strengthened his back. LIZ.
Margie, that was the name she gave
JUS, said no more, but went out to her
tubs and bent over her steaming waves
all day, and, as before, finished her
work neatly and deity.
This time, as we watched her in her
neat plaid shawl and tidy bonnet going,
(, through the gate on her way home. we
ali-felt as If we had met with per-
sonal loss.= 49, --=-
why not have her come and do the
ironingpn suggested sister Julia. But
mother said she had only the one.day
to give us; her time was all taken UP.
.sShe's-ether follsawashl lad y said
little Charlie, frettdlly, Il ant her all
the time my own self.sa
When our neighbor called again we
told her how much we liked Margie,
and she related some Of her history.
1t appeared that she had household
IAN old, feeble mother and a weak,
invalid husband, who was mildly de-
smented. She cared for them both and
kept them comfortably by thelabor of
her hands, while she helped many
others in small ways, and by her cheer
full, sincere life. ~
''She is a LADY," said mothers en-
phatically, "a lady in the truest mean
ing Of the=werd, and in : its old Saxon
sense, 1oaf-giver.
ar .'Queen of two hands," misquoted
Julia,-appreciatively.
She was our wash lady for seven
years. By and BY she came and did
! odd chores at times, took her turn at
nursing our sick, advised. helped, COM
forted,a What she was to us she was
to many other families in the village.
There never was, there never could be.
q more unselfish creature. When some
one demonstrated with her for her de-
votion to her fretful. ill-conditioned
husband. and suggested sending him
TO an asylum. she answered simply:
"And gang all the rest OF my days
alance Nal nal I'd be that lonesome
without the puir mon, could ma live.
: It's better sac.
But one morning her '.gudemonp
oversight, and In this world wakehed
no more. We all tried to do some
thing FOR her, but there was nothing
u. do. She had her own way Of doing