The Van Buren press., 1896-06-13

church, and on the school committee
Some of the peighbors say openly
that Elisha would never have been
deacon If it had not been for his wife;
that Lydia ought to have been deacon,
and since she could not, because she
was woman, they made her one by
proxy through her husband. Elisha
is a good deacon--a very good deacon,
indeed-and he has Lydia to fully and
carefully advise him.
Lydia hasneye had any children, but
she has always had large family. She
began with her own mother and her
husbands mother, and little orphan
second cousin of her husbands who
had lived with the Wheeloeks since her
parents died. Her own mother, as |
said before, was very feeble and deal
of care; her husbands mother had a
Jealous, irritable disposition and was
very difficult to live with; the orphan
cousin was delicate, had the ricketts,,
and, people said none too clear mind.
Lydia kept no servant, and she had to
work hard to keep her house in order,
sew and mend, build up her husbands
character and reconcile all the oppo-
site dispositions and requirements of
her family. She has had to delve in
spiritual as well as temporal field, and
employ heart and soul and hands at
the same time ever since she was
married. After her mother died an
old aunt of Elisha's, who would other
| visa houa had IN ba
came to live with them. She is stone
deaf and has cnriously inquiring
mind, but it is said that Lydia never
loses her patience and never wearies of
shouting the most useless information
into her straining ears.
It was accounted somewhat fortunate
that Elisha's mother did not live long
after Aunt Inez appeared, for it would
have been, not too great a strain upon
Iydia's patienee-nobody doubts the
long suffering of that-but for her
strength, to reconcile two such charac-
ters and keep the peace for any length
of time. However, Elisha's mother had
not been dead long before a sister of the
riclfety orphan cousin, who grows
more and more of a charge as the years
go on, lost her husband and came to
live at the Wheeloek place with her
four children. They said she would be
a great help to Lydia, but she is a pretty
young thing, in spite of her four chill
dren; she is good singer, and she is
constant at all the sociables and sing
ing-schools, and does u deal of fancy
work, and the neighbors think Lydia
has to take nearly all the care of the
ehildren. They also think that the
young widow is setting her cap here
and there, and hope she may marry and
so relieve poor Lydia of herself and her
children. But, after all, it would be
only a temporary relief. Some other
widow, or orphan, or aged and intirm
aunt, would descend upon her, for i is
we'll known that it is Lydia who aids
and abets her husband in his charity
toward his needy relations. And
moreover, it is told how she let's the
children and the additional expenses be
as small a source of worry to him as
possible. Some of the neighbors think
that if Lydia Wheelock stints herself
much more, to provide for widows and
orphans, she cannot go to meeting for
lack of simply decent covering. Lurinda
Smell is positive that she keeps her
shawl on in hot weather to cover up her
sleeves, which are past mending in any
decorous fashion, and simply make
show of their innumerablc and not
very harmonious patches. And as for
her bonnets, It is actually an insult to
look attentively at them.
Poor Lydia has not had new carpet
in her sitting-room since she was mar
ried. The one Elisha's mother had was
old then, and long ago went to the rag
man. Ever since she has lived on the
bare boards. 1t is dreadful thing in
this village not to have a carpet in the
sitting-room. The neighbors have
never got over being shocked at the
loud taps of their shoes on the bare
boards when they enter Lydia's. She
had a rag carpet almost done, they
say, when Lottie Green and her children
came; since then she had no time nor
opportunity to finish it.
But everybody knew that If Lydia
and Elisha did not do much for other
people she could have tapestry car
pet in her sitting-room, and a black silk
dress every year. She sees to 1T, howev-
err. that Elisha is not stinted to his dis
comfort. He has his good Sunday
clothes, and looks as we'll as any man
in the village.
Lydia is a good cook, and is said to
simply pamper her husbands appetite,
and takes more pains to do so the more
she has in her family. We are all very
sure that Lydia never neglects her hus-
band for his needy relations, nor re-
lakes for an instant her watchful eye
upon his spiritual and temporal needs.
/ Miss Lurinda Smell, declares that she has
built up fire in the north parlor every
evening this winter that Elisha may
81. in there and read his paper, and not
be annoyed by Lottie Green's children.
They are very noisy. boisterous chill
dren.
Lydia Wheelock, bnsy as she is with
her own household cares, does not con-
fine her ministrations to them. II a
neigh Dor is i'll Lydia III always ready
to watch with her, and n most
invaluable nurse she is. Not a neighbor
but would rather have Lydia than any
body else over her when she is i'll.
Lydia Is always in the house Of
mourning; people claim her sympathy
as if it were their right, and she seems