Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1894-03-31

worked and ate AMI sat i'll the great
kitchen, except when company came
then they rolled up the green paper
shades III the sitting room, and sat IL
there. Few pictures adorned the walls
some antiauated. cheap Autographs
in ogee frames. AMI various maps
Everything was stiff, bare, orderly
and scrupulously clean
Mary had brought with her various
rugs and tides, also pictures, mats and
vases, with which she had thought to
brighten up her room. but when she
found they were 10 occupy the little
saven-by nine bedroom off the kitchen,
she saw there was little opportunity to
display them there Mrs. HinghCm,
senior, took possession Of one of the
chambers, anl Mary, in the generosity
Of her heart, would have spread out
her belongings there, glad to have her
them but the gentle old LADY SrmIy
refused
"Her life has been bare SO long she
doesn't wish TO have 1t otherwise, :
Mary thought sadly to herself
SO she ended by scattering her treas
ures mere and there about the house,
and tried to tiatter herself they took
off little of the bare, comfor tless
look.
Her greatest trial was to see tha,
Jonas didn't at all comprehend bu'
that his home was as pit asant as hers
had been. Eut as time pa.s.d on, and
she learned by hard experience the eA-
acting nature of farm duties, she no
longer wor dered that he had mo time
for nonsense" as she said. stepping
into Mother Hingham's shoes" meant
more reol downright hard work than
Mary had ever dreamed of, but she
was young and strong, and would not
finch when she saw that both Jonas
and his mother expected her to be the
notable, hardworking housewife the
elder woman had always been.
Mother bingham helped Mary great
deal, showed her how to do all sorts
of farm work, to which she was wholly
unaccustomed, and was always as kind
and considerate as it was in the nature
Of thin gs she could be but the care
fell more and more on Mary's young
shoulders, already stopping under their
heavt load Her hands grew brown
and hard, her dresses grew old-fash-
ioned and she had neither time nor
care to remodel them, as she seldom
went anywhere except occasionally to
church. and more rarely still on brief
visit 20 her fathers Then babies came
as the years went by-boys, always
boys.
If / only had girl" thought
Mary sometimes, "she might grow up
to help me. and do all the light and
pretty things that | have forgotten
how to do; but these boys will never
care for such things"
Mother bingham lived but few
years after Mary came there. To the
last she was happy and content, fond
Of Mary, and at home in the farm
house, still unchanged; the same tall
old clock ticking away III the corner
of the great, clear, yellow Aoored
kitchen; the same long. wood table.
from which the family hsd eaten their
meals for fifty years, standing in fair
state of preservation, and good enough
because it always had been.
''Jonas will have to hire help for
his wife, now that his mother is
gone, people said.
But he didn't seem to think OF that.
As long as Mary did not complain, be
never dreamed she WAS OVERRIDING, or
needed anything she did not have.
: She saw and felt every day Of her
life how little of rest and comfort fell
10 her lot, but she saw no way Of es-
cape.
Il did not begin right, she often sad
y acknowledged herself. IF Jonas
auI / had started IN alone. could
have said - him: we must have this
aaa that. and We must arrange
things thus and SO, but everything
VAS Il the ruts when ! came here, and
| couldn' seem TO get them out with
OFT hurting Mother Hinghan's feel,
;nss, and now they have gone So long
J certainly can't get them out.
D-e ~ The esfs sbfishs5 traditions =: