Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1908-04-09
HIS NUT f
PIEADERS
By DORA HASTINGS
(Copyrigh

/
The time was morning, the scene b
farmhouse kitchen: the actors, two
people, man and woman The woman,
Amy by name, was small in stature,
light in frame and quick in motion;
her face was plain, it's white, healthy
color marred by freckles, its mouth
over-generous. Her eyes, too, were
| large, with such honesty and SINGER
| ity in their depths of gray, they fur
nished the owner a certificate OF char
| acter wherever she carried them. She
had come into the kitchen, holding in
| one hand a cake, at which she glanced
with something of the same fondness
| which an artist shows for master
i piece. AS she had entered the kitch-
en-, she had stopped suddenly by the
door, her large, bright eyes taking in
| quickly the details of the scene be-
expression of such dismay, as brought
a broad smile upon her companions
merry face. She hurriedly placed
her cake upon the table, then shrank
! back at her first glimpse of its grease
spots and kettle crock; her eyes
where they seemed to transfix the
dust with their steely glance. There
was an unwashed frying-pan on the
! hearth. She looked at it with eyes
! of pity; then turned, with the same
expression, toward her companion. She
| ;nJ> wit or
hand. Wouldn't you" she said, fall
teringly, like to have me-have me
sweep little for you, now I'm here?
l like to sweep and clean, just as
another woman likes to sing and play
the piano"
NO" he said, laughing; Il think
it is enough for one woman to clean
out the cracks in her own floor with
hair-pin l couldn't think of con-
senting to such waste of strength in
my behalf"
She turned, with just a touch of
| yeXation in her cheek.
Good morning. she said abruptly
as she started across the piazza to-
ward her own home. She hurried on
as if sCne important duty waited her
| coming AS she clicked the latch of
| the gate, she turned toward the house
which she had just left. He was still
| standing there by the door; his face
| which had been but q minute be-
| fore, mirth-illumined, had become sud-
| denly grave She saw it, and it's re-
Election fell upon her own. Yes, she
knew it was lonely over there. She
went on slowly into the house. The
room which she entered partoOk of
her own character; it was small, dull
| in color, and spotlessly kept Her
mother, diminutive like herself, sat
Of her withered, sharply-chisedel face
showing clear above the white kerr
chief at her throat. She had the
same gray eyes and the same grave
earnestness.
We'll, what did he say to the cake,
Amy?" asked the mother, looking over
her spectacles at her daughter as she
| entered.
HE said he was obliged" replied
Amy, drawing chair up to the fire.
you ought to see the Kitchen, she
went on; dirt and dust in heaps
everywhere. You can't hardly see the
table for the grease and crock" look
ing piteously at her mother; "and all
the rest is just as bad There is a
frying-pan there that 1 shall remem
Der as long as I live
What can we do?" asked the moth
er earnestly, laying aside her knit
ting, as if that impeded the course
of thought; whats to be done?"
Il don't know" said Amy, despair
ingly. "He wouldn't let me clean.
asked him again.
1--we thought sometimes" remark,
| ed the older woman, that perhaps
he don't like it-your not wanting to
marry him; sort O. resents it, may
be-"
"There'd be no sense in that" said
| Amy, with a show of energy and
surprise you might as well blame
me for liking pickles. My mind is
set naturally on living single cant
help it,"
"He hasn't asked you lately, has
he?" said the mother, when they
were launched safely on the steady
| stream Of work. Amy shook hel
head
Maybe he's getting tired of it," re-
| marked the mother.
81 don't know" said Amy, little
GROSSLY. HE says he asks me once
a year; but that's his way joking
about things that are no joke. It's but
a half dozen times
Its too bad said the mother, sum
ming up the situation; "but what's to
be done?"
That question presented itself often
to the two women, as they sat around
their own well-kept hearth, and
| thought of the kitchen in the house
opposite From time to time Amy ven
| tured over with a cake and took note
of the increase of dust.
Its piling up ON the mopboard,"
she said to her mother, who was
| ever al eager anu syupatHellc hSten
| err He scratches around with a
broom sometimes; but he never hits
the mopboard.
| The frying-pan, too, appeared occa
sionally in it's unwashed, unkempt con
| dition; it had the forlorn air of one
who had seen better days.
The winter wore away at last When
| the spring had fairly come, the moth