Sharp County record., 1900-01-26
Earning His Bride by the
Sweat of His Brow
By Tom Hall.
By Tom Hall.


1.-THE eccentric aunt of Laura Marsh, be-
fore she will consent to the marriage Of her
niece with Ned Wilson, requires them to
carry out whimsical plan she has formed,
which she calls IAN experimental w0oing,'
The plan is that the two young people I'M
der the eyes Of herself, her already mar
RED riece and her husband, Jane and Alex
Kelsey (christened by her the Utter Fail
ures," because of their frivolous tenden-
cies), shall practice housekeeping in a cot
tage provided by her, from breakfast I'M
til supper time each day, returning to their
respective homes in the evening. They are
to live and pay all expenses on an allowance
at the rate of $1,000 a year, Laura to at
tend to the work of the household, assist
ed by one servant, and Ned to engage in
some useful occupation, such money as he
earns to be given to the poor. If at the
end of the summer they are not tired Of
each other and stand the further test CT
separation, to which she will then subject
them, she will give her consent. At the
time Of this reading, the plan is already in
operation, Clcely Brown a young Vas
sar graduate, interested in sOciologiC stud
les and author of Monograph ca Domes-
tic Service" being engaged as maid of all
York. Ned Wilson, one of the subjects
a he experiment. is the narrator.l
n HERE was but one thing to mar
our complete enjoyment of our
aunts whim. That was the propri-
etary interest which she and the utter
Failures" took in it, They were omni-
present,
We could be alone in peace and quiet
nowhere, In fact, between the three
of them had little or no time to pay
any Of the ordinary devotions to Laura.
On one of those few occasions when
I found such time l was rudely inter
rupted by Aunt Alice,
Ned" she asked, chow much of your
allowance have you spent so far?"
l had to confess that | did not know
sand when are you going to get to
work?" she continued. [ could not
make answer in this case, either. Ihad
forgotten all about it.
The next day | went forth in search
of work, / commenced with the higher
grades of business, as matter of
course. found, however, that no
bank presidents were needed at that
time; that merchants did not at that
particular moment require a manager
for their affairs; that even the most
able lawyers did not require a senior
partner, who had never been admitted
, ta the bar; and that the most able
physician in town could attend to his
practice with the aid of couple of
young doctors,
The next day I aimed lower. I sim
ply had to, | went in for lower posi-
tons. / even offered myself as a clerk
IN one OF the stores. 1t was useless. |
went down through the various grades
with equal success. or rather lack of it
Finally approached the coal and wood
man to whom | had just paid a steer
ill for coal for our own house. sup.
rose he thought me crazy. He told me-
WAS not strong enough to do any Of
the work he had to do. But after had
pleaded with him awhile he made me
an otfer-actually made me an offer
He even went SO far as to give me {
choice of work. He told me that
could go to work at once driving a Goa
wagon, or that he could give me {
chance to earn at least some money by
saving wood, He had to depend on
few loafers around town to saw Woo
for him, and, as q rule, they were
drunk when he most wanted them. FL
did not believe | would get drunk, anC
would, therefore, give me the contrac
to do all his wood-sawing. I thank
'u''v accepted the offer, and agreed
over to disappoint him, The matter
enumeration was easily settled, anC
creed TO his first offer, which seemed
please him. 1t really did not matter
To me, as whatever ! earned was to gt
to charity oand if the amount was mo-
sufficient to satisfy Aunt Alice, coult
easily make it up out of my own pocket
There was nothing in my agreemen
with her to prohibit that.
"Well," said the coal and wood man
"take off your coat and go to work
You'll find the best bucksaw in tow
hanging on that nail over there. Wher
you find blisters on your hands, JUS
go right on as If nothing had happened
After awhile your hands will get usec
to it, and you won't need to wear kic
owes any more"
think" | answered, with some
"on, that I'll take my work
h me,'
NMJg' he roared, "Take youI
NwN home with you9 What do you
.nh you're doing-plain sewing Oh
oshmg and ironingp You're big.
ger fool than thought you were"
Not at ALL" | answered, getting
rather angry, 81 prefer to do the work
at home, and IL | pay for having the
wood drawn to my house and back
again surely you can have no objec.
ton"
The coal and wood man uttered a pro.
longed whistle, .. Hu.' ...
well, you are a queer one" he said
'But IL doesn't make any difference to
mo where you do the work so long as
YOU 10 H. And II you want to pay for
having II drawn bock and forth, why
Unite Just so much more business for
ul Jooms, But don't see how you're