Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1908-09-04
The Managing of Obed
By CHAPLIN HOWARD, JR
Copyright, by shortatOry Pub. Coz
By CHAPLIN HOWARD, JR.

there was an expression almost of ter
ror as she gazed across at the tall old
clock in the corner by the mantel-
piece. She remembered her first
glimpse of 1t, 80 years ago, on the
day her husband brought her to the
farm, a bride. She had stood in the
doorway, in her wedding gown, her
glance travelling shyly about the un-
familiar room, while the clock stared
back at her with it's pallid, expression
less old face. From the same corner
1T had watched and licked away the
years while she had faded from a
pretty, sweet-faced girl into a plain,
unlovely woman, old before her time.
Her jailer, she had called it some
times, in the only words of revolt that
ever crossed her lips, and she came
back to 1t now with the feeling of a
prisoner thrust back into the cell from
which he has escaped
She had been to the city for three
days with her husband, Obed Tuttle,
to visit their married daughter Eme-
line, and they had come home on the
stage that afternoon.
1t was the first time Mrs. Tuttle had
been away from the farm over night
in more than 15 years, and the sim.
pie luxury of her daughters home
came to her as revelation. The rugs.
the polished floors, the snowy, flower
strewn tablecloth, sparkling with
glass and silver in the rose-shaded
candle-light, the watchful, attentive
maid-every detail had appealed to
the starved senses of the older woman
with comfort that was almost phys
ical
That first night at dinner Emeline
had told her she looked tired and
over-worked-that 1t was a shame,
since he could afford it, that her father
didn't hire girl. And her husband, a
grave-mannered young doctor, had
looked up abstractedly and added that
he had read somewhere that nearly 80
per cent. of the women in the insane
asylum were farmers wives.
The words had seemed to hold for
her strange significance. The lean,
hard-worked little woman had never
considered the possibility of breaking
down. The work of the farm, after
the creamery was added, had grown
harder with every year, but she had
never complained-it kept her from
feeling lonely since her children had
grown up and gone away.
She rose nervously and lit the lamp.
Then she took off her bonnet and set
about preparing supper with trembling
hands. She knew that she must speak
while the sense of her freedom was
still upon heretofore they had settled
back into the familiar routine against
which 1t would be useless for her to
struggle.
But it was not until the supper
dishes had been cleared away and her
husband, having finished the evening
chores, had sat down to read his
weekly paper in the circle of lamplight
by the table, that she found the cour-
age which she sought. She was stand
ing at the sink, and she spoke without
looking around:
Had you thought anything of what
Emeline said about a girl?"
He paid no attention, and she Won
dered If he had not heard.
"Obed," she insisted, "Emeline said
she thought-now you could afford it
you ought to hire girl"
The paper moved impatiently. 81
guess we've always managed" he
said. Il don't see no reason fur
changin' now"
Mrs. Tuttle drew in her breath.
sharply. For long time she stood
looking fixedly at the dish she had
been washing. Her spare figure in its
shabby black dress was tense.
IT'S men like you, Obed," she broke
out, who help fill them asylums up
with farmers wives. I've worked and
shaved for you in this kitchen all my
life, and you've been gettin' meaner
an meaner every year. If you should
ever die" she went on, breathlessly
I've got the text for your funeral SER
mon all picked out. It's in the forty.
eighth chapter of Isaiah, the fourth
verse. I've had it marked in my Bible
more'n twenty years"
She closed her lips tightly, as If
frightened at her own daring and,
turning back to the sink, went on
quietly with her work.
Half an hour later, when she had
gone up the creaking stairs to the
north bedroom, her husband laid down
his paper and listened. Then he got
up cautiously and, crossing over 10 the
mantel, took down the worn Bible.
There was a book-mark worked on
perforated cardboard at the forty
eighth chapter Of Isaiah, and the verse
was marked with double line of fad
ed penciling: Because / knew that
thou art obstinate. and thy neck is an
iron sinew, and thy brow BRASS"
1t was nearly week later that
Obed first noticed that his wife was
acting queerly. He came in to break
fast one morning after the chores
were done, and found she had
brought her rocklng-chair out on to
the back porch. She sat with her
hands folded idly in her lap, rocking
gently to and fro.
"Why, what's the matter. map" he
asked, stopping in the middle of the
S.o4L ,,,fllr-natI In hand "Ain't VOu