Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-10-12

e drove by in their new two-seated Wagon
e They had received a hearty greeting fror
r their friends. The women sat together o
' the back seat, and Hannah had put he
own new summer shawl over Mothe
!. Parish's shoulders, for the wind had gon
5 into the east, and the air was growing COO
III.
With all her kind determination an
knowledge beforehand of the inevitable
difficulties, Dams wife found her heart fai
more and more as the summer days wen
by. She did not mind the hard work O
, the farm; she had always been used to har,
work, and she grew fonder and fonder of he
own home and Of Dan. She had her fault
and hated them more than ever now tina
they were met by that chilling fog of re
buke and disapproval. Sometimes the 70;
would lift and the elder woman would be,
come cheerful and companionable for few
days, and then it was really happy tint
as they sat together at their sewing or
went about their house work. Ann Parish
would talk of the past and Of Dams child
hood, and give some hints of the true afiec-
ton for him which burned warmly under
the cover of selfshness and jealousy and
J
Sometimes the poor woman would become
almost gay, and look young, even pretty,
in the exquisite neatness of her black
print gown and smooth hair. "You'd
know Mother Parish was different from
common folks" Hannah proudly whispered
to Dan once, but the next morning the
chilly fog was there again and seemed to
fill the kitchen.
Nothing suited; Ann Parish worked
harder than even since her daughter-in-
law had come. She would not admit that
her labors were lessened, and was heard to
say that Hannah was willing, but she
had come of slipshod folks, and took hold
OF everything in what she deemed the
wrong way.
To the outer world their relations looked
fair enough, and Dams work was away
from the house. So, since his wife was not
a complainer, he did not know the worst
of affairs. 1t really seemed to poor Han
nah sometimes that Dams mother was GO
ing crazy. She used to be melancholy and
disappearing, but never spiteful and con-
Trajectory as now. Hannah patiently re-
minded herself that it was hard for an
older woman to give up the head of affairs,
and sometimes it was still harder to keep
the lead with failing strength.
But as the early autumn came, they
were falling into way of being silent,
and Hannah began to feel low spirited,
while Dan, who had been hindered about
his crops and disappointed, spoke sharply,
and for the first time openly took his
mothers side, when his ignorance of the
matters in question made him unjust.
Hannah's pretty, girlish freshness
seemed to be fading. Ann Perish her
self grew thinner and quicker and more
convicting in manner; there was little
laughter or cheerfulness in the comfortable
farmhouse, and so the rainy September
weather came on.
Dams mother felt herself increasingly to
be pitied. Dams wife lost heart and
gained hopelessness. If she only knew
what to do! But she was sure that her
mother-in-law disliked her thoroughly,
and that it was no use to try any longer to
change a settled feeling. She was still
affectionately disposed, and was able to
look at her housemate's sullen disposition
as malady and misfortune, rather than
fault, especially in rare days when Ann
Parish was more tolerant and kindly.
Somehow she did not feel well and strong,
as she did when she first came to the farm.
She was full Of shivering weakness; and
while she tried to throw it off by extra ex-
ertion, she grew the more incapable of
steady, hard work. Dan said one day that
she must not work so hard. He was very
good to her, and tender, and yet she felt a
new dislike to him, or rather to his heavy
boots and loud voice.
Her head was heavy, and she could not
bear noise; and she was half afraid of
Dams mother, and started when the quick,
severe little woman stepped forward sud
denly from doorway or closet. For
many days this grew worse and worse; she
believed that she had caught heavy
cold; she was flushed and hot and longed
to creep away somewhere in the dark
One morning after breakfast she had to
make her bed and could not and lay down
for minute to gather strength. One
verse of an old rhymn drifted through her
mind, poor child, she had often heard it
sung at evening meetings:
Jesus the sinners friend, to thee
Lost and undone, for aid fee;
Weary of earth, myself and sin,
Open Thine arms and take me in.
Hannah! Hannah p called the sharp
voice from the kitchen, "your breads all
scorched / never burnt baking of bread
in all the years / kept house"
But Hannah did not hurry down to the
scene of disaster. 1t seemed no matter
about the bread; she could not lift her
head from the pillow. And when she
tried to answer she found her voice fail
her; she could not make Dams mother
| hear.
In few minutes the disturbed woman
came up to the bedroom. She did not
suspect Hannah of indulging herself in a
| fit of bad temper; it was rather from her
habit of curiosity and suspicion that she
| looked in and saw a relaxed figure lying
among the rumpled bedclothes. Hannah
| family said that her head ached very
| badly and she must have taken more cold.
| She had not been feeling well all the
morning.
Eve worked through a good many
mornings when | was ready to DROP" said
Ann Parish, but with less ungraci usness
| than usual. She hesitated a minute, and
| then pulled blanket over her daughters
shoulders, and drew the window curtain so
that the sun should not flare in, and then
went away. Dan had taken his dinner to
distant field where he was at work.
Later in the afternoon he came to the
house, and found nobody in the kitchen or
dining-room. His mother was not in the
bedroom, and he thought that Hannah
might have gone to visit some of her
friends, which was a relief to his mind,
since he had been worrying about her all
day. He heard footsteps in the room
| overhead, which had been his sisters and
presently found his mother there, looking
over poor Eliza's bureau, signing over the
school-books and needle-work and other
relics, as was her wont on Sundays and in
times of depression.
Dan looked very tall and large in the
bedroom with its sloping ceiling. His
mother sighed but did not speak to him.
where's Hannah ~ asked the young
man.