Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1898-07-20
MRS. BASCOM'S THINGS

1IllU. DHUUUIl ~ L uIIlUU
It was the day before Mrs Bascom's
sale and the accumulation of forty years
was waiting for it. Forty years is long
.time-long enough for the rootlets of
human heart to strike deep and take firm
hold. Mrs Bascom was thinking this
as she walked around the yard for the last
time She stopped by branching maple
and laid caressing hand upon it.
I'VE planted this tree that first spring,
she said softly to herself. 1T wasn't
more than a foot Highland we've grown
here together ever since. All, me, it's
hard to transplant old trees
But there was no help for it. She
knew that. When Col. Bascom died it
became absolutely necessary to break up
the home John, the only son. lived near,
but he could not give up his nice new
house to go back to the old place. Sally,
the daughter, lived in st. Louis. Her hus-
band was a prosperous merchant, and, of
course, moored. So there was nothing
left for Mrs. Bascom but to break up
and live with her children.
The question of where Sally had settled
in her own decisive fashion.
''Of course. mother will live with me,
she said. "The daughter-nOt the daugh-
ter-in-Iaw-is the proper one to have the
care of the parents when they are old.
y.
frank avowal of filial obligation. She was
an active woman of 80. She had not
thought to need earring for for ten years
or more.
Her daughter-in-law was sitting next to
her. She took the withered hand in hers
and strOked it gently.
''As Sally says, a daughter has the first
claim" she said, tenderly, but l am sure
mother knows that we would be glad to
have her" And somehow Mrs. Bascom
felt comforted.
Sally settled the details of the breaking
Up i'll the same summary manner. 1t was
her way of doing things.
We'll just made a clean sweep, moth
err" she said ''Theres nothing worth
saving, and We'll sell them all
Mrs. Bascom was taking things out Of
the bureau drawer.
Don't you think I'd better take the
bureau with me, daughter?' she asked,
little anxiOusly. It was d mahogany chest
OF drawers without casters.
ooh my, no. mother! | wouldn't have
that numbering old thing around for any
thing. I have handsome antique oak
dresser in your room, and a chiffonier to
match. You'll have all the drawer space
YOU can possibly use"
Mrs. BascOm was opening and shutting
the empty drawers aimlessly.
I've had this bureau forty years, she
said as if to herself 1--WE bought it
when we went TO housekeeping. [ suppose
it is a little old-fashiOned'- was u
touch of wounded feeling in her voice
''but it was considered a fine piece of fur
niture in its day. The top drawer was
fathers and the second drawer was the
one | kept my baby clothes in. | can just
see Johns little linen-cambric shirts,
trimmed with thread edging, now. Sally,
it seems like I would hate to sell this
bureau
''I'n take it, mother, and keep it for
you" said Lizzie quietly.
''Why, Lizzie" demonstrated her sister,
in-law, "you haven't any room for it,
'I'II make room,' said Mrs. John Bas-
com. a little CURLY.
The old lady was not much help. Every
article in the house was full of tender
memories to her, and as she went from
-one to another sitting moment IN ia
theirs chair and touching this thing and
that she was clearly giving a goodby to
them all. Such a hold inanimate things
will get upon the affections!
you wouldn't have any use for this
new rag carpet, would you, daughter"'
None in the world, mother"
II didn't know but you might put it in
the back part of the house. l took a heap
of pains with this carpet. and nearly the
last thing father did was to bring it home
from the weayer's. He took such an in
terest in it when / was making it, father
did. You don't think you'd better put
It down in my room, do YOU Sally"
ooh, no, mother; it wouldn't be in
keeping with anything in the room. And
then I've just put down a new body Brus-
sells. I don't feel that there is anything
too good for my mother affectionately.
Mrs. BascOm smiled back bravely, but
she looked wistfully at the carpet, after
all
And so i went
The things were all sold. and when Mrs.
BascOm started for st. Louis with her
earthly belongings packed in new trunk
she was as stripped and d2ScIate an old
woman as ever swallowed her tears and
smiled. 1t was as if a grapevine had
been prepared for transplanting by care
fully sha king the earth from its roots
and clipping its tendrils neatly away.
They did not hear from her often.
Sally had said she would have al the
time there was now to write letters, but
letter-writing pleasure-had been
crowded out of her busy country life, and
when leisure came she was too old to
form new habit
Mrs John Bascom went down to st.
Louis at the lime of the fair. nearly
year after the breaking up. She stayed
three weeks.
The night she came back she had a
plain talk with her husband
John" she said in answer to his in
quiries mother is dying of homesick-
ness. She never makes complaint. but
she is just as unhappy as she can bel
know she is.
why, Lizzie John Bascom raised
shocked face. ''You don't mean that
Sally isn't good to mother?"
''Sally is just as good to mother as she
can be; that is, she is as good to her as
she knows how to be. But John, Sally