The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1897-01-13

Der folly. 81 can't feel to blame her;
know it's more'n gill can bear to
live this way. I've had to, but it's been
dreadful hard. I've wished more'n
once l could be laid down along with
the little babies out there on the hill,
SOS TO rest spell; but there was you
and Lury wanted me, aud so my time
hadn't come. Amasa, you're man
grown now. If ever you should get
married, and / s'pose you viii, men
folks seem to think ii needful, whether
Or no, do kinder make it easy for her.
poor creeterl Don't grind her down TO
skin and bone like me, dear; 'tain't
just right, I'm sure ONT, never to make
no more Of a woman than if she was
horned crtter, aud don't do it,"
Mother, never vii !" answered
the son, as energetically and solemly as
If he were taking his oath.
But Wealthy was nearer to her rest
than she knew; the enemy that turks
in dirt, neglect, poor food, constant
drudgery and the want of every whole
some and pleasurable excitement TO
mind and body, and when least ex-
pected swoops down and does its final
errand in the isolated farm house no
less than in the city slums, the scourge
of New England-typhoid fever-broke
out in the Tucker homestead.
Wealthy turned away from her bak-
ing one Saturday morning, just as the
last pie was on the broad pantry shelf,
and tainted on the kitchen floor, where
Amasa the younger found her an hour
after, muttering, delirious and cold.
40 40 a n xyt1
doctor, or an old woman who called
herself a nurse, was all useless. But
the best skill of any kind would have
been equal y futile. 5 was never
conscious again for week. Then her
eyes seemed to see what was about her
once more; she looked up at her boy,
laid her wan cheek on his hand, smiled
and died.
Hardly had her wasted shape been
put away under the mullens and hard
hack, when her husband came in from
the bayfield, smitten with the same
plague. He was harder to conquer;
three weeks of alternate burning, sink
log, rayiug and chils ended at last in
the gray and grim repose of death for
him, and another Amasa Tucker
reigned alone in the old house on the
hill.
1t is not to be supposed that in all
these years, Amasa the younger had
been blind to the charms of the other
sex; he had not "been with" every girl
who went to school with him, or whom
he had met at singing schools or spell
ing matches, or who smiled at him from
her Sunday bonnet as he manfuly
"held up his end" in the village choir.
He had been faithful always to the
shy, delicate, dark.eyed little girl who
vas his girl sweetheart, and now it was
Mary Peet that he fastened TO ask to
share his life and home. He had in
tended to take a farm on shares the
next summer, and work his way
slowly upward to a place of his own.
Now he had this hundred-acre farm,
and to his great surprise he found
So 900 laid up in the bank at Poets
Mills, the slow savings of his lather's
fifty years. He began at once to get
his house in order; he longed to build a
new one, but Mary's advice restrained
him, SO he did his best with this. The
cellar he cleared and whitewashed with
his own hands; cleaned its one be.
grimed window and set two more, so
that it was sweet and light; the house
was scrubbed from one end to the
other, bonfire made of the dirty old
quilts and comfortables, the kitchen re-
painted a soft yellow, and new windows
with clear, large glass set in place of
the dingy old sashes. The woodhouse
was filed with dry wood and a good
store of pine cones and chopped brush
for kindlings; new milkroom was
built but a little way from the back
door, over a tiny brook that ran down
the hill north of the house and under
the Slated floor kept up a draught of
fresh air; covered passage connected
it with the kitchen, and a door
into the old milkroom made of that a
convenient pantry, while the removal
of the old one from the kitchen corner
gave TO that apartment more room, air
and light. A new stove, with set
boiler, filed up the hearth of the old
fireplace, but further improvements
Amasa left for Mary.
A different homecoming from his
mothers, she had, indeed, on snch
spring day as Wealthy came there.
The kitchen shone clean and bright, a
bowl of pink arbutus blossoms made its
atmosphere freshly sweet, and the fire
was laid ready for her to light, the shin
ing teakettle filed, and the pantry held
such stores as Amasa's masculine
knowledge of household wants could
ggest-hour, butter, eggs, sugar, all
were in abundance, and no feast of roy
atty ever gave more pleasure to its most
honored guest than the hot biscuit
Mary made and baked for their supper,
the stewed dried apples, the fragrant
tea and the rich old cheese, gave Amasa
on that happy evening. Next day they
took their wedding trip to Peet's Mills
in the new and sensible farm wagon
Amasa had just bought, with strong
and spirited horse to draw it.
{" want you to look around, Mary"
he had said the night before, Sand see
what is needful here. / expect almost
everything is wanting, and we can't lay
out for finery; but first of all get what
will make your work easy. Your we'd
ding present will come along tomorrow;
A 4 1,.,v