News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-04-18
Farmer Thompson'S lesson,

Farmer Thompson'S lesson,
Ms. Thompson stood by the kitchen
table pairing potatoes for dinner. Some
thing was evidently wrong with the
little lady, for there was an unmistaka-
bic air of ''spite" in the way she tossed
the potatoes IN the pan of cool spring
water, waiting there to receive them.
Itwas sultry weather, and through the
open window camethe sound of mowers
whetting their sythes, blended with the
call of the robbin and the faint notes of
the cuckoo in the shaded wood. But it
only irritated Mrs. Thompson; indeed,
everything Initiated her that day.
To begin at the beginning, Jane Law
renee had been an unusually romantic
girl, and had gone for two years to a
boarding school. She had always fan
cied she would marry some famous
artist OF scholar, who would take her to
Rome and Venice, where she might live
in a perpetual dream of beauty. She SO
loved beautiful thingsl But, contrary
to all her preconceived notions, she
married Robert Thompson, a plain,
practical farmer, and instead of touring
1t in Italy, she went to live at the old
homestead, which had been the abode
of the Thompson's for generations.
Robert Thompson was a working farm
er as well as a practical man, and all
his people worked His mother had
worked in her day, his sisters had work
ed, he expected his wife to work She
took to it gleefrIlly; she had not been
brought up with high notions by any
means; and at first the work did not
seem so much. But every experienced
lady knows how the work seems to accu-
mulate in plain farmers household as
years after marriage go on. There were
plenty of men and boys about. but only
one woman servant was kept; and Mrs.
Robert Thompson grew to find that she
helped at nearly everything, save per-
haps the toughest of the labor. In place
of lounging in elegant foreign studios,
or gliding down famed canals and
streams In picturesque gondolas, she
had butter and cheese to make, and poul-
try to rear, and dinners to cook in the
long, low-ceiled kitchen, and the thou
sand and one cares upon her shoulders
that maike up busy household.
The matter tO-jlay, which had put her SO I
had recently been established in the /
neighborhood. There was much distress
among the poor labOrers' wives and fam
lies, and some ladies with time on their
hands set up sewing club, to make
few clothes for the nearly naked children.
The farmers wives had joined it-Mrs.
Thompson among others. They met at
stated intervals, taking the different
houses in rotation; dining at home at u,
assembling at ] o'clock, and working
steadily for several hours.
1t was surprising how much work got.
done; how many little petticOats and
frOcks were made IN the long afternoon.
In less than a month it would be Mrs.
Thompson 5 turn to receive the company
for the first time-and she naturally
began to consider ways and means. For
they met for an entertainment as we'll as
for sewing-tea in the afternoon, q grand
meal later, when the stitching was over
What was Mrs Thompson to do! Their
stock of plates and dishes consisted of a
few odds and ends of cracked dclf that
had once been q kind of mulberry color
She had long wanted some new white
ware; she wanted it more than ever now.
Grover, the keeper of the village crock
cry shop, had a lovely set fOr sale
white, with delicate sprig of convol-
vuli and fuchsias, looking every bit as
good Us real china. Mrs. Thompson
had set her heart on the set, and that
morning had broached the subject to
her husband.
''What's the matter with the old
ones!" he asked.
;'Look ot them, sheanswered. "They
are frightfully old and shabby"
81 dare say the food will taste as we'll
off them as off Growers set of white
ware"
'.But there's not half enough. We
have as good as none left"
You'd not have thought of this but
for the sewing circle having to come
here. If they can't come and eat from
such dishes as we've got, they are well
come to stay away"
There We're tears in Mrs. Thompson's
eyes, but she crowded them bravely
back. He took his hat to go out to his
moving.
"We really want the things, Robert. |
Those at Growers store are very cheap. |
/ can get all l want for a mere trife. |
Do give me the money"
''Groycr'u have to keep 'em for us;
I've got no money to waste ON fine /
china, returned the farmer. ''By the /
way" looking back from the door, /
''Jones and Lee are coming. to give me |
a helping hand. I want to get the /
south meadow down to-day if I can; it's
famous crop; so [ shall bring them in
to dinner. Oh, and the Hubbards want
six pounds of butter tonight; don't for
get to have it ready"
With these words Mr.. Robert Thomp-
son had marched Of, leaving his wife to .
her long weary days work, darkened
and made distasteful by her disappoint-
ment. She was both grieved and angry.
1t was a little thing, perhaps, but it is
the little things of life that delight or
annoy.
Existence seemed very bare and home
ly to Jane Thompson that summer day.
With her love of ease and beauty and
symmetry, how rude and coarse and
hard looked all her surroundings. 1t
was only one long mOnotonOus round of
homely toll, unrelieved by any of the
littlo sweetnesses and graces that might
make even toll pleasant. She did not
often think of it, but she remembered
that day with the faintest little air of
regret that she might have been differ
entity situated, and rs she looked up to
the pretty French cottage on the hill,
embowered in n perfect forest of bios
soming vines, something like a sigh
trembled ON her lips.
esquire Burnham's wife does not !
have to beg for paltry bit of money to
set out her table decently," she thought
What business had she to marry Rob
ert Thompson, she asked herself, her 1
slender wrist beating away at the but '
ter for the Hubbards. For in the green
and gloomy light in which Mrs. ThOmp-
son looked at things to-day, she quite
forgot the fact that she had fallen in
love with the honest, steady and good
locking young farmer, choosing him in :
preference to Joe Burnham, whom she
might have had. Joe had patrimony
OF his own-S200 year at least-and a s
good bit of land, which he rented, and t