The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-02-21
<(Copyright 1909, by Benj. B. Hampton.)
NV

 one of them dishes till you've split that there kindlin' and piled it up good whar get it easy gallivantin round listenin to that fool camp meetin' feler who doesn't, support his own lawful home-and won'tl" she ended explosive1y
 What she wouldn't was plain enough to the little that in his long, obstinate upper lip which over the kndlnes in the blue eyes, and he said with an aggrayating smile, What won't ye, Mandy? Won't
 Josiah Harris" retorted his wife hotly, "Ive told you what won't do, and now I'll tell you what will work in the mils-and-and I'll never wash them dishes, never!" she finished, with burst of tears. q. that. guess it's pity if can't look after his soul in this here vale of tears" Then he
 umbled under his breath, T presume attend to
 Mandy heard nothing but certain word which wa. IS glove in her face "soul~ she gasped, her precious soul all you've mind to- to- but won won't Took Took after your body mite longer when you don't do what you'd ought to do There's them apples rotn' on the south field to be tended to- and wood to split and 6rsh . tG burn 1n.+n and you you go ehasin e .d
 vas damned by the .slammng of the door---Josiah deening retreat the wiser and comfortable part of valor. She sank Imply upon a straight backed bitter sweetness of seif-pty.
 and again The clock licked with effect of carrying her steadily, irresistaby into uncertain future.
 
 somehow grown alien and unfriendly within this brief space of half hour By her own words she had put
 But combating the sense of detachment this strange new lethargy, was her habitual energy of mind and body; and her intensity of indignation subsid1d, done reasserted itself She would be good as her word; she would go to Tanuck Fa1s-she would show him but first she must tidy up a bit The dishes she would not wash, for principles sake; but she must shake the rugs and sweep the floor When these things were finished, and her fingers itched to attack The sitting room windows bespattered with last nights 4 T ot a with ao aud she got her pail make the windows worthy of the bright October sun
 Its awful bad to wash windows when the sums on em, she nurmured apologecally, Out jest couldn't
 She unlocked the sliding doors of the partor dused t with her usual thoroughness and reocked the doors with click that startled her into vivid sense of anaty- She filled and trimmed the lamps and as she was replacing the last of them in its bracket on the wal, al the clock Z. struck twelve
 noon already, and not ready to go wouldn't have Si Harris catch me here-not for this world any years and seen afore how mean he is Hen be eomin in soon to get his dinner expect, sames usual and-well, he'll hev to get t-I won't"
 the back door and started for the little sunerhouse Josiah had begun in an ornamental years be- fore, and had finished because he had begun it. I'll wait here behind these vines until he has come and gone she thought, with lump in her throat land
 Mandy DO rous te reddened leaves but there was neither sound nor mo ton about the house except when the big masti dog half mile distant Deprived of outlet for her pa se ad and M the slow calm of Nature Presently she arose and wan grown hay. But when she drew and saw the several indications of Josias late sraying after false godshe ungathered apples the neglected wood pile indignation revived within her.
 ~He hadn't ought to-" she murnured fercely, "and he ain't come home this noon and Pm goin
 With fresh resolution she about getting herself something to eat; after which she carefully washed fcal pile remaining from the morning meal she left untouched. ~ '--'
 After she had fastened the last hook and eve of her best black dress she remembered that the lowest bureau drawer in disorder by reason of her hasty search day two before for some one of it's she went her knees and fingered with housewife1y thrift the odds and ends she had been saving against drawer rising t made her Way to sS the Snt fhe chair by the window In her hand little pile of tiny garments, yellow with years and darkness
 q don't know as I'd ought to take em," she thought lot of her, same did"
 Conscientious1y the clock ticked the minutes into hours as clocks do whether their ticking be for joy M.nsn ST dd not move The shadows heightened and
 The red moon rising over the meadows lighted Josiah on his homeward way.
 she hev to come to ber Oey she o4n m bm bossy- didn't want to go to any old meetin' today but l jest want goin to take any O her lip. Anyhow, he chuckled "Annabel Riggs is ahead one things would take so long to make That there tongue O Mandys makes feel jest like pepper on the hot stove does-est that hot, scrooged tip feeln' I hev been good husband to her in the n1an and-weII ncbbe hey been sort O about this here but here the long upper lip drew down-"1et her talk. I don't care He whsted hard to convince skeptical universe how indifferent he was but his footsteps qtiickened perceptiby he neared his home and saw that no welcoming light shone forth from it's win dovs '1t's funny Mandy ain't got no light" he thought, with queer-gone feeling somewhere inside of him.
 . Meanwhile Mandy, sitting in the dark irresolue had se-n Btdee start off to meet his master She heard Josiah whis1ine and the fact that he could whsle seemed suggestion of unbelief in her threat f tae morning ard caused strong revulsion of feel