The Washington times., 1911-05-16
CHAPTER XII contiuued)

A/ she was the brains OF th'
" business; i was only th
machine. ! dug the none!
out Of the ground, but that wouldn,
have amounted to much If II had al
gone for nothing except to keep the ma
chine moving from day TO day.
The dollar she saved was worth more
than q hundred dollars earned and spent
again. 1t was the only dollar wnlch
counted. They say a penny saved Is .
penny earned. 10 my mind a penny
saved was worth 10 US at TINS tIme every
cent of 4 dollar.
So Ruth was not only an active part
ner, but there was another sioe TO the
game that appealed to her.
The thing 1 like about OR lie down
here" she said to me one nlght, Is the
chance it gives me to get something OF
myself into every single detail Oh the
didn't know what she meant. be-
cause 1t seemed to me that was just
what she had always done. But she
shook her head when l said so.
NO." she said. Not the way I can
.WelI, you didn't have a servant, and
must have done whatever was DONE"
II didn't have time to pick out the
food for the table, she said. II had to
order It. Of the grocery man, man; ! didn
clothes as wanted. Why. didn't even
have time to plan"
IF anyone had told me that a woman
could do any more than you then were
doing, should have laughed at them, -
You and the boy weren't all my own
then" she said. Il had to waste a
great deal of time on things outside the
house. Sometimes it used to make me
feel as though you were just one of
the neighbors. Billy"
I began to see what she meant But
she certainly found now just as much
time If not more to spare on the women
and babies all around us.
They aren't neighbors," she said.
"They are friends"
1 suppose she felt like that because
what she did for them wasn't just
wasted energy like an evening at CARDS.
But she went back again and again,
tion that our new home was all ner
own.
You may think me a pig. Billy
she said. But l like It. like to pick
and the boy eat: like to pick out ey-
cry leaf Of lettuce, every apple. 1t
makes me feel as though I was doing
something for you"
But she wouldn't let me finish.
No, Billy" she said. You don't
understand what all that means to ME
how 1t makes me a part of you and
like to think that in everything you
wear there's a stitch of mine right close
20 you. And that when you and the
boy lie down at night I'm touching you
because. / made everything clean for
you with my own hands"
II makes my throat grow lumpy even
now when 1 remember the eager, half
ashamed way she looked UP into my
eyes as she said this. Lord, sometimes
she made me feel like a little child ana
other times she made me feel like a
me feel at the moment, she always left
me wishing that / had in me every
good thing a man can have so that
might be half way worthy of her.
There are times when a fellow knows
that as a man he doesn't count for
snuch as compared with any woman.
And with such a woman as Ruth
well, God knows 1 tried to do my best
that ever since, but it makes me ache
20 think how little I've been able to
give her of all she deserves.
In her housework Ruth had developed
q system that would have made for
tune for any man If applied in the same
degree to his business. l learned lot
from her.
Instead of going at her tasks in the
haphazard fashion of most women or
doing things just because her grand
mother and her mother did then a GER
tain way, she used her head.
We already told how she did her
washing little by little every day, in
stead of waiting for Monday, and then
tearing herself all to pieces, and that's
n 1a1r neT
When she was cooking breakfast and
had a good FIRE, she'd have half her
dinner on at the same time. Anythin
that was just as good warmed up, she'd
soups while waiting for the biscuits to
bake and boil her rice or make ger cold
puddings while we were eating.
When that stove was working in the
morning you couldn't find a square inch
of 1t that wasn't working.
As result, she planned never to
spend over half an hour on her dinner at
night, and by the time the breakfast
with her cooking until then.
She used her head even in little
things: she'd make one dish do the
work Of three. She never washed this
dish until she was through with It for
good. And she'd find the time at odd
moments during her cooking to wash
these dishes as they came along.
If she spilled anything on the floor she
cleaned It up, with the result that when
breakfast was served, the kitchen
looked as ship-shape as when she be-
gan. When she was busy, she was the
worked with her head, both hands. and
AS result instead Of fiddling around
all day. when she was through, she was
through.
When she got up in the morning she
knew exactly what she had to do for the
day, Just how she was going to do 1t
and Just when she was going to do II.
And you could bank that the things at
night would be done. and be done just
az she had planned. She thought ahead.
That's a great thing to master in any
essiness.
N nv own work, the plan had out
Tined for myself I developed dav br
day. At the end of three months I
found that even what little italian I had
learned was a help to me. The mere
fact that was studying their languag~
rlaced me on a better footing with nv
fellows.
They seemed to receive it as compli-
,nent and to feel that I was teki1g
personal interest in the race. My desire
to practice nv few phrases was ALWAYS
a letter of introduction to a newcomer.
I talked with them about everything
where they came from. what made them
come. what they did before they came,
how long thev worked and what pay
they got in Italy. how they saved to
get over here, how they secured their
Jobs, what thev hoped to do eventually,
where they lived how large their fami-
lies were. how much 1t cost them to live
and what they ate.
7 inquired as to what they liked and
what they disliked about their work;
what they considered fair and what un
fair about the labor and the pay: what
they liRed and didn't like about the
foreman.
Otter couldn't get anv opinion at all
out Of them on these subjects: often II
wasn't honest ard often IL wasn't intel