The record-union., 1893-10-14

One day Silas Wells, when he came
with our daily supply of milk, told us
that he wanted to go to Chicopee Falls on
some business, but he had no hired man
to milk his seven cows, and his wife was
too sickly to do it.
''Sure, It's glad I'd be to milk thin,
MIR. Wells" said Mary Ann.
"G'long! Do they hev caows where
you KEN from?" said he iocularly.
''Sure they do. Crane ones wild
shnakes for tails,o laughed she in return.
(which side do you milk COW on?"
he asked.
"Nigh side,
Right side
Morning side the same;
IT ye tried
T'other side
CoW'd soon go lame"
"Thats what they say in th' old coun-
thry. Sure Pm homesick to milk a
cow again. Ills many one l MIXED
at home. Let me thry."
Mr.. Wells was only too glad to find
some one to do his milking for him, so
that evening sister Ellen and l walked
down with Mary Ann to see her essay
her new role.
Mr.. Wells handed her the milking
stool, but she laughed, and saying, me
knees'll hould me-" down she pumped
alongside of Bessie, gentle-looking Jer-
sey, and placing the pail in front of her.
in twinkling two coDions streams were
ringing against its tin sides. She MIXED
rhythmically, as some blacksmithS nam
mer the anvil or some butchers chop on
the block, and she never missed a beat
when she changed teats. 1t was as artistic
piece OF work in its way as | ever saw,
and no one was more appreciative than
Farmer Wells. She milked rapidly, and
inside of five minutes eight quarts of
rich foamy milk steamed in the pail.
"Well, WE'LL that beats ALL" said Mr..
Wells; "I guess 1'1l stay month at Chic
opee Falls"
''Sure, ye ought to kape cow, ma'am,"
said she to sister Ellen few days later,
and sister Ellen thought so too. So when
George came home from one of his trips,
she painted the economy of keeping a
COW in such glowing colors that he went
forthwith to Mr.. Wells and bought Bessie
for thirty dollars, and thereafter Mary
Ann played jig into the pail morning
and evening, and we all feasted and fat
tened on milk and cream.
| am mortally afraid of COW, and so
is sister Ellen, while George, who is city
born and city bred, knows about as much
of COWS as bookkeeper nowadays
knows of pounds. So Mary AIMS title
to permanency in her position seemed
assured, and, in fact such a favorite had
looked on her lack of cIeanness as mega
tive virtue.
She had been with us two months, and
in that time had paid eight ek-day and
five Sunday visits to her sisters house at
Springville Hollow, generally taking
down and bringing back a library book,
or getting cake Of compressed yeast or
some clothes-pins or the like. Good
bread-making with country yeast was an
q artt sis nnnl6 RI
was hard enough for Della to make it
good even with the compressed COM
pound. A weekly supply of clothes pins
was rendered necessary by sisters
youngest, whose depredations among
those useful articles were terrible.
Mary Ann made light of the seven
miles to and from Springville Hollow,
and laughed at the dependence on horses
typical of the American countryman.
Legs is betther than wheels for the
loikes of me, ma'am," was her elegant
response when l feared that seven miles
atoot, each way, would tire her.
She was capital story-teller, so the
children said, and they never tired of
hearing how the tailor caught little red
leprachaun in his garden and made him
work for him for a year, or of the Irish
King that outplayed the seven pipers, or
how good st. Patrick drove all the snakes
out of Ireland. "If ye was to catch a
snake in this country an carry it back
to Oireland, it wud turn to sthrap as
soon as IL touched the ground" said she.
Many things she told them, too, about
her mother, who was still living in Ire
land, and how she used to ride to mark ct
with her in a "low-bac cart" and
helped her dig potatoes as big as pump
kins. She hoped to send for her ''one o.
those foine days. when she'd laid by
enough money.
One day sister Ellen came to me with
serious face.
"Why, what's the matter?' said I.
you look as doleful as the lamented
Dinah."
"pd like to look at that Individual"
said she; -four OF my wedding teaspoons
are gone"
what! Have you looked every
WHEREOF
"Yes; why, haven't used them since
Aunt Sarah was here, and Dinah saw me
put them back in the trunk, because 1
asked her to help me move it,"
Maybe Della has ihem."
81 thought so, too," said sister Ellen,
somewhat guiltily, $50 l searched her
room-you know you have a right to if
you suspect. There wasn't anything,
though
Then, OF course, Dinah took them,n
said l.
We gave them up as lost. and soon
they were Joined in their retirement
by an enameled breastpin of mine, a
yard of point lace of sisters, and various
odds and ends of varying values.
For some reason never explained none
of US ever thought Of suspecting Mary
Ann. We concluded we would find we
had lost other things as time went by,
and Dinah's good name sank below par
In October we were visited by our
cousin, Miss Prudence Lippinhouse,
from Philadelphia, and after she had
been with us a fortnight she came to
sister Ellen and me as we sat sewing in
the ''south chamber" and told us that
she had lost two $40 bills from her trunk.
81 put them in. a handkerchief in the
left-hand compartment of my tray OH
Sunday, just before going to church, as
never believe in tempting honest girls by
leaving money loose. I put the key in
my gloveboX in my bureau. To-day the
handkerchief is still in the tray, but the
money is gone"
OF course, we felt extremely mortified,
and sister Ellen went at once to Della and
taxed her with the theft. She denied it,
but burst into tears. This was accepted
as condemning proof, and sister gave her
until evening to confess or leave. Out
side of the window Mary Ann was sing
ing Gaelic lullaby to the baby, who was
browsing in his little hammock on the
piazza.
That afternoon I went into the barn to
hunt for eggs and l heard Della and Mary
Ann engaged in earnest conversation.
Della was on the point of crying and
Mary Ann was comforting her. The
baby tumbled about in the hay, too
young to be little pitcher, and the other
children were off playing in the brook, so
the conversation was unreServed.
mn I,,I Al,,f 7 i
most Gilbertian in its topsy-turviness.
"There, dearie, don't cry" said Mary
Ann. "I'll put the money back in her
bureau loike she left it there widout