Waterbury Democrat., 1903-02-19
THE WRONG
 WOMAN
By MARGUERITE sTABLER.

bors would have told you, and were "stuck up." Everybody could see that from the smart trap they drove and the feathers on Mrs. Masson's hat. Nobody could have told you or a specific instance of the stuck-up- ness, but as the neighbors all agreed, when fellow-and young fellow at that-held twice as much land as anybody in the valley, he was bound to feel his oats. Consequently, the Massons were severely let alone by the Middletowners, and not given B chance to Hay it over" anybody.
 At first the Massons looked upon their ostracism from the Middletown church socials and school picnics as a, huge joke, and regarded the narrow minded farmer folk around them as of about the same importance as the Jersey cattle in their pasture, and the Brigadier stock in their stables. But after time-when the novelty of country life was quite worn off; when the smart trap had clattered over every available foot of the great, monotonous valley; when the vary. ing seasons were no longer new-a little human intercourse began to seem a sweet and needful thing. But the Massons did not know how to break down the barrier of feathers and silver-mounted harness. Jack Mason could not pull up his horse in the middle of the country road and talk an hour or two about the best time to plant pumpkins, or the cheap est remedy for hog cholera. because his horses were too mettlesome to stand. Mrs. Mason could not send her children to the public school, and thereby show her friendly feeling, for the simple reason that she had none to send.
 Therefore was the ostracism of the Massons complete. Then, when the price of wheat began to drop, life on a great western grain ranch be- gan to show it's sterner side. Mason found he could get along without his foreman by doing the work himself. and by degrees dropped into looking out for the machinery, devising means of saving labor, superintend- ing the care of the horses, and even, in emergencies, taking hand him. self in anything that was to be done. In the house, matters were similar. As, year after year, the price of wheat continued to drop, the little chafng dish arts, practiced on cozy evenings among her congenial east ern friends, were called into use, and "A Practical Cook Book for Begin ners" bought and diligently studied.
 As with each seasons harvest con- ditions became worse, the smart trap ceased to be seen on the county roads, and the offending feathers be- came drabbled and were not replaced by new ones. Thrown back upon thems elves for entertainment and di- version, the Massons found, to their surprise, how uninteresting they had become to each other. Books, to U man harassed by the care of an un- profitable ranch, had no charm; and music from hands stiffened by house work, lost it's melody.
 Hard manual work roughens a mans disposition and manners, but Masson was not the man to notice this degeneration in himself Isola- tion from congenial company and a want of interest in her surroundings make a woman careless of her ap- pearance; and long watching over a scar and yellow expanse of grain fields burns hair and complexion, of whatever hue, to sallow, tawny sun burn. And Mason was the man to notice this change in his wife keenly and feel aggrieved.
 At length, after the tenth long, dry summer in this sun-scorched, sum cursed valley, things reached crisis