Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1902-11-27
Cerinda boIt's thanksgiving.

Lcrlnda bo9l'$ thanksgiving.
Strangers who passed by the house
in which the Hollis lived looked at it
curiously Even those who saw it
frequently looked at it with some men
tai comment in regard to its state of
parts of it that had never been com
pleted, although it was now 20 years
since Levi Holt had begun to build the
house. One or two of the windows
had never yet known glass or sash.
They were boarded up on the outside
Half of the front of the house and one
end had once been painted dull red;
but both Lewis paint and his energy
had become exhausted at this stage of
the painting, and the paint pot had
never been replenished, while Levi
had had only spaSmOdic accessiOns of
energy. Brick supports for a small
porch over the front door had been
laid and the framework for the floor
had been completed, but the floor had
never been laid two wide boards laid
side by side serving as a somewhat
perilous walk from the door to the
uncertain flight of wooden steps that
formed part of the unfinished porch.
The interior of the house was in
harmony with the exterior. Not a
single room had ever been wholly
completed. The ceiling and one
of ,,tEf
tered at the end of five years, but the
basebOards had never been put in
place. A sudden squirt of energy
and short-Iiyed pride had induced
Levi to begin papering the parlor; but
both his pride and his energy suffered
a sudden relapse when one-half of the
work was done, and the other half had
never been completed. This was a
special eye-sore to Lorinda, Lewis
longsuffering and patient wife.
THAT room looks so crazy with the
two ends and half of one side papered
and the rest of the wall bare" Lorinda
had often said to Levi.
so it does, Lorinda, so it does"
Levi would reply. 4 been aiming to
finish it up this long time, and some
day III Whirl in and do it, see if
don't"
A woman with a sharper tongue, and
with less love and loyalty in her heart,
would sometimes have told Levi that
he had all of their married life been
aiming" to do things that were still
undone.
She had, it is true, sometimes
spoken real plain" to Levi. She had
told him that he ought to 'spunk up"
and not have his home the "worst-look-
ing ramshackle of a place in the
county" And Levi had always said:
1T do look pretty bad, Lorindy, it do
for sure. I'm aiming to make it look
mighty different some day. There's
lot that | plan to do soon as l git
round to it. You amt always going
to be ashamed of your home, Lorindy."
4 am ashamed Of it now, Levi"
well. come to look at it, l don't
know as | blame you any, Lorindy. I
got too putter away and git it fixed up
some"
If you would only do something
more than putter, Levi. If you would
stop being so much of a putterer, and
stick to one thing until you get it
done, things would look different. I'll
own that you nearly always seem to be
doing something, but you don't stick
to any one thing long enough"
L guess you're right about that,
Lorindy; l guess that you're just
right about it, Seems as if | do dis
seminate or dissipate, don't know
which is right, my energy consider
able. | must do different
Lorinda's sorely tried patience be
gan to show signs of waning after
the lapse of 20 years of the stress and
strain put upon it by Levi. Some
times she thought that it might have
been better if she had been less pa
tient.
Perhaps if | had been sharper
tongued it would have spurred him on
to Go more" Lorinda sometimes said
to herself She always returned to
her own home with sense of humilia-
ton after visiting at the homes Of her
neighbors 1t mortified her to have
her friends visit her She never asked
wen the minister to tea because her
dining-room was as unfinished as the
other rooms. 1t leaked when it
rained, and it was one of the din
ing-room windows that was boarded