The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1901-07-04
She did not mention the cold, short days

She did not mention the cold, short days
OF the bitter winter when the stock had
to be attended to and the fires had to be
, kept up. nor the long, dreary winter
evenings spent alone with the sewing
after the babies were asleep. These
were the things she forgot to mention
| in her letters to him.
cit went on in this way for three
years, while he was taking his prepare
tory course in Chicago. The expenses
had been met year by year by the indom-
liable little wife at home. There had
been no more payments on the farm;
that had been out of the question, and
the husband and wife had agreed that
only the interest should be paid, and
that the rest of the payments must
wait until the education was completed.
At the end of the three years Mr..
Proutit was ready to go East for his
theological training
Il remember that fall WE'LL" con.
tinued Aunt Helen. "Mr Proufit had
been at home during the summer, help
ing with the farm. They had planted
almost the entire twenty acres in corn,
and he had to leave before it was ripe
enough to harvest. | was there one
day when Mrs Proutit was remaking
the suit of clothes he had worn the
winter before. | remember the coat
was Prince Albert; she had ripped it
entirely to pieces and dyed it, and was
turning it inside out to remake it. She
did the same with the vest and trousers,
she had finished with them. | could
scarcely see how she managed it, but
she told me afterwards that she did
that with every suit he wore while he
was in college.
THAT was only one of the many
things she did. Year after year she
worked managing the farm, caring for
her house and raising her children-of
whom there were four by this time
and watching every possibility whereby
she might turn the much needed penny.
One fall an unusually good potato crop
was boon to her; another year it was
an unusual yield of apples from her
small orchard: but the corn crop was
always the one upon which she depend
ed for her principal source of revenue,
so much so that when Mr.. Proutit was
finally graduated from the seminary,
seven years after he began his educa-
ton, She declared that he was corn
educated minister.
while the ministerial student had
been giving all these years to study, his
faithful wife had given herself unspar-
ingly to work in order that he might do
so. There had been no time in her
busy, self-sacriticing life for self-cul-
ture: her days had been spent in the
fields and over the hot kitchen stove;
her evenings had been devoted to MAX
ing his and the children's clothing.
When he had finished his studies and
returned home there were several years
of paStorate in an unimpOrtant church,
and with her increasing family there
was not much more opportunity for
self-care and Improvement then than
she had on the farm OF late years
recognition and honor have come to
DR.. Prouft; but don't you think he
would be lacking in every attribute of
manhood if he We're not proud of and
deferential to the wife who has done so
much for him.
Il do, indeed, Aunt Helen" said Ma
bel, warmly; land ! wish | could tell
Mrs. Proutit myself what a heroine l
think she is. | will certainly never
again think of her as either plain or
awkward. Tile Wellspring.