The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1903-10-23
THE LOWER RANCH.
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BY HATTIE HORNER LOUTHAN.

/ law said she had raised one son and
/ six daughters without a baby carriage;
that the wedding clothes could be
made over, and that rag-carpets ought
to be good enough for farmers wives.
When Mary appealed to her hus-
band, he said gravely that he feared
| she'd have to wait awhile as the semi.
annual payment on the Lower Ranch
/ was about due, and he hardly knew
how he was to meet il without sacri-
| ficing some hogs on the then low mar
| ket. Then Mary, in burst Of gener-
osity, said he must do nothing Of the
sort He should have her butter and
egg income, which was no little. So
she continued to carry her heavy baby,
made over her meagre wedding outfit,
and spent the evenings tearing and
sewing carpet-rags.
That fall the old mother died, and
| the funeral expenses consumed much
Of the money saved toward the winter
| payment on the Lower Ranch New
winter clothes were not to be thought
Of the butter and egg income con-
/ tinued to flow into the Lower Ranch
fund, and by spring Mary was asking
a quarter at a time for thread and
other necessities. Still she was proud
of her husband as a land owner and
kept saying that she would go with
| him some day to see the Lower Ranch
But it was ten miles distant a long
ride for her and baby in the heavy
wagon, and she was always so busy.
That season the crops were almost
failure through drought, and the
hogs had to so, market or no market
In the spring another baby added to
| Mary's cares and she made Ruben's
infant clothes do for the tiny girl.
How could she ask for new things
when barns must be painted, hired
hands paid, and that semi-annual pay
ment always staring them in the face?
A hired girl had been the dream of
her honeymoon days, and the necessity
for house help grew as the passing
years increased the work and slipped
babe after babe into her reluctant
arms. But she was told, impatientIy,
l fear, that she could see that three
hired men couldn't put in and cult
vate and gather all the crops of the
| homestead and Lower Ranch and the
rented land; he must have more help.
When once the Lower Ranch was paid
for, she could have a hired girl and
welcome.
1t was the fifth year when the mort
gage was due that a diplomatic trip
had to be made to the county-Seat.
The last payment was overdue, with
only part of the interest paid. But
the agent was wise. He had learned
upon inquiry that Jason Grant was
hone It, Woodworking and ambitious;
that he always paid as he demanded
to be paid-to the last penny. So there
was no trouble about the extension Of
the mortgages; and the ranchman re-
turned home radiant. His wife was
not as sympathetic as he had expected.
Every year of the extension of that
mortgage meant another year without
help in the house.
The second five years proved harder
than the first five Mary's superb
health yielded more and more to the
strain. The rosy face and arms grew
brown and leathery from exposure at
the washtub, in the garden and in the
barnyard. She took less pride in her
self and children now, went less fire.
uuently to church. though the minister,
still unmarried, called to protest. She
grew more and more silent, unfriendly
and self-contained, rs she 'trod her
eternal circle" of cooking, dish-wash-
ing sweeping and mending, washing,
milking cows and rocking babies
/ During these years of meeting pay
ments, she seldom expressed a want
OF need-shoes or school books for
, tho children, a battle Of medicine, OF
) small donations for the parsonage,
but she was confronted by the Lower
/ Ranch and its next payment
I At length the mortgage was lifted
] the last payment met; but the sign OF
t pardonable relief was Quenched by the
r announcement that the 'fne house
. would now be built-for renting pur
/ poses The projected Branch RoaC
: from county seat to county seat wa'
: ENJOYING its biennial boom, the Lower
+ Ranch was on it's surveyed route, ant
I; as all the adjoining ranches were max
O ing improvements, it was Just pure
e business to keep up with the neighbour
T and be ready for what might happen.
The zine house was begun ant
r finished, and Ranchman Grant urge
i his wife to so with him and see II
? Mary smiled one of her grim It'll
NJ nr..il,n n,nd anil ehn WIS too hnsN PM