The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1892-03-10
A HOUSEkEEPER'S DREAM.

A housekeeper sat in her easy chair
At the close Of q sweet spring day;
The children played in the garden fair,
The kettle was humming cheerful air,
But her face was grave, with its lines OF care,
And her thoughts were far away.
1t was Monday, and there were rows on rows
Out under the orchard trees
OF the whitest, and sweetest and cleanest Of
clothes;
There were tiny aprons, with rufles and bows
And stockings, with never hole in the toes;
And dresses, and wrappers Of ease,
81 must get them in, for it looks like rain,"
She said, with weary sigh,
As she glanced again thro' the window pane,
AT the stable roof and the weather vane,
AT a purple cloud that lay like stain
Low down on the western sky.
Said she: "a was wash, and iron, and cook,
Till the lNelong week is through.
Work peeps from every corner and nook,
] seldom have time TO read book,
At half our papers never look,
There is always so much TO do.
"MisS Aver goes riding about the town,
As if she had days to let
Miss Gray"-and her brows were bent to {
frown,
While the book she held fell noisily down
HAS time to visit, or make a gown
She has my last pattern yet
The kettle kept on its drowsy song:
And the lady closed her eyes;
She thought how the days were growing long:
How all of the children were well and strong;
How hard it was to keep them from wrong
How baby was growing wise.
The chair was easy, she slept at last,
The kitchen was lost to view;
She dreamed that her toll and care were past
She reigned in palace strange and vast:
Her lot with the great Of the land was cast;
She had nothing whatever to do.
Joy untold, but she looked about
And listened for little feet
How strange it seemed they should all be out
SO far away that no song shout
Did gladden. her within without.
Were they far in the lane or the street?
Then she thought, in her dream, they all ha
flown
Because CT the work they made
To some other sphere. till they should be grown
While she was left in her palace alone,
With none who had need of her aid
AT least my husband is left to me STILL
Said the mother, sad and low;
HE always did praise my care and skill;
No other my place, to him can fill.
will watch and wait for him until
He will come at eve, l know.
And then she remembered that days before
He had gone with merry band
or comrades he had not known of yOre,
How well he looked in tho suit he wore)
In famous yacht, to some fAr-Off shore,
BY the southern breczCS famed
So she sat and sighed through the weary day,
And far in the evening" gloom:
JlCr servants came and were sent away
She sang and played-'twas the saddest lay
She had ever sung, and it seemed to stay
And float through the lonely room
"Ah better" she said, twas a life of care,
With somebody else to please,
Than a life in this home, so grand and fair,
Which neither my husband nor children share
o better by far to do and to bear,
Than an idle life of ease
A laugh, and shout. and the ladys dream
Was brought to u sudden close;
The children were here-what noisy team,
The baby was driving, she caught a CLEAN
Of the setting sum- as it came like a stream
Through the western gates of gold.
No supper the water was hubhlinC o'er
And the fire was nearly spent,
But the woman s face no longer wore
TIL" weary look of an hour before
Ehc had wiser grown through the mystic lore
OF a dream that came and went
Clara b, Heath, in Good Housekeeping