The copper era and Morenci leader., 1913-12-19


 know how they
 would get along at first but all of the boys had been used to helpin' ma a good deal, and they were real handy, and when I asked if they wasn't goin' to have house keeper, they wouldn't hear to it. They said they wasn't goin' to ihave no strange woman round in Ima's place, nohow. So Silas he took hold and did the washin' and ironin' and Reuben did the sweepin', and Lemuel, he was the youngest, next to me, did the cookin'. He could cook a dinner equal to any woman, and his pies beat mine. My husband said so, and had to give in they did.
 We'll, they seemed to get along so nice, and none of 'em had ever seemed to think much about the girls, not even when they was boys, that I must say I was astonished when Lemuel he up and got married to Mehitable Pierce. She was a little along in years, too, rather more so than Lem uel, and a dreadful smart piece. She was good lookin' and she had property, but she was dreadful smart and up an comin'. I could never see how Lem uel ever got the courage to ask her to have him, he was always kind of mild spoken little fellow. Reuben he declared he didn't He vowed that Mehitable asked him herself. He said he knew it for fact, and he said it with the tears rollin' down his cheeks. . Reuben was the oldest and he'd al ways been terrible fond of Lemue- I~<.rv hor in such fix if that woman hadn't up an asked him, an he didn't have spunk enough to say mo-" said Reuben, and he swallowed hard.
 Mehitable had a nice house of her own that her father left her, all fur nisked and every.hing, so of course Lemuel he went to live with her, and Mehitable's house was pretty near where I lived. 30 could see every thing that was gotn- on. It want very long before said to Hannah Morse, my husbands old maid sister that lives with us and teaches school, that I believed Lemuel was henpecked, though I hadn't anythin' against Me hitable.
 'T don't see what else anybody that married Mehitable Pierce would ex- pect," said Hannah. She spoke real sharp for her. I've always kind of wondered if Hannah would have had Lemuel if he'd asked her. Well" said I, 'T hope poor Lemuel will be happy. He's always been such a good, mild, wilhn' boy that it does seem a pity for him to be rode over rough-shop, and have all the will he ever did have trodden into the dust"
 Well, that is what will happen, or I'll miss my guess" said Hannah Morse. For long while thought she was right It was really pitiful to see Lemuel. He didn't have no more lib erty nor will of his own than a five year-old boy, and not so much. Mehit- able wouldn't let him do this and that, and if there was anythin' he wanted to do, she was set against it, and he'd al ways give right in. Many's the time Lemuel has run over to my house, and his wife come racin' to the fence and screamed after him to come home, and he'd start up as scared as he could be. And many's the time I've been in there, and he started to go out, and she'd tell him to set down, and he's set without murmur.
 
 am she favored long-tailed coats, and he ,bein' such a short man never looked we'll in lem, and she wouldn' t et'him have store shirts and collars, but.made them herself, and she didn't have very good patterns, she used her fathers old ones, and he wasn't no such built man as Lemuel, and ITknow he suffered everything, both in his pride an his feelin's. Lemuel began to look real downtrod. He didn't seen like half such a man as he did, and the Queerest thing about it was: Mehit- able didn't pear to like the work of her own hands, so to speak.
 One day she talked to me about 1t. '1 dunno what 'tis,'' said she, "but Lemuel he don't seem to have no go ahead and no ambition and no will of his own. He tries to please me, but it don't seem s'if he had grit enough even for that. Sometimes I think he ain't we'll, but I dunno what ails him. I've been real careful of him. He's worn thick hannels, and he's had wholesome victuals; a1n't never let him have pie"
 Lemuel was always dreadful fond of pie," said I. felt kind of sorry, for I remembered how fond poor Lemuel had alwava heen Of Yn0theT'a niea and