Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1913-12-24


aNS home long before
she died I didn't
e. know how they
would get along at
first but all Of the boys had been used
to helpin' ma good deal, and they
were real handy, and when l asked if
they wasn't goin to have house
keeper, they wouldn't hear to it.
They said they wasn't goin to
have no strange woman round in
mas place, nohow So Silas he took
hold and did the washin' and ironin'
land 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.
Wen, they seemed to get along so
mice, and none of 'en had ever seemed
no think much about the girls, not
Seven when they was boys, that / must
SAY [ was astOnished when LemueL he
pup and got married to Mehitable
Pierce. She was a little along in
years, too, rather more SO than Lem
heI. and a dreadful smart piece. She
fwa5 good l0okin' and she had property,
but she was dreadful smart and up an
icomin'. / could never see how Lem
meI ever got the courage to ask her to
lhaVe him, he was always a kind of
mild spoken little fellow. Reuben he
declared he didn't He vowed that
Mehitable asked him herself. He said
ne knew il for a fact, and he said it
with the tears rolliG down his cheeks.
Reuben was the oldest and he'd al
ways been terrible fond of Lemuel.
''That poor boy would never have got
On such a fix if that woman hadn't up
an asked him. an he didn't have
Bpunk enough to say no" said Reuben,
and he swallowed hard.
Mehitable had a nice house of her
own that her father left her, all fur
nished and everything. SO of course
LemueI he went to live with her, and
Mehitable's house was pretty near
where [ lived, so I could see every
thing that was goin' on. 1t want very
long before I said to Hannah Morse,
my husbands old maid sister that
lives with us and teaches school, that
believed Lemuel was henpecked,
though I hadn't anythin' against Me
hitable.
81 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 il Hannah would have had
LemueI if he'd asked her. WELL" said
4, Il hope poor Lemuel viii be happy.
He's always been such q good, mild,
willin' boy that it does seem pity
for him to be rode over rough-shop,
and have all the win he ever did have
trodden into the dust
We'll, that is what will happen, or
I'll miss my guess. said Hannah
Morse. For long while | thought she
was right 1t 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 IL. Many's the time
Lemel has run over to my house, and
his wife come racin' TO the fence and
screamed after him 10 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
shed tell him to set down. and he's
set without murmur
Mehitabie she bought all his clothes,
an she favored long-tailed coats. and
he bein' such short man never
looked we'll in EN-, and she wouldn't
let tim have store shirts and collars,
but made them herself. and she didn't
have very good patterns. she used her
9atber's old ones, and he wasn't no
such built man as Lemuel. and know
he suffered everything both in his
pride an his feelias. Lemuel began
to look real downtrod He didn't seem
like Lalf such man as he did, and the
QueeFest 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.
RA&S lis SrttQ she, Out
LemUel he don't seem to have no go
ahead and no ambition and no viii of
his own. He tries to please me, but
1T dent seem as if he had grit enough
even for that. Sometimes | think he
amt well. but | dunno what ais him.
I've been real careful of him. He's
worn thick hannels. and he's had
w nj -~1n 7 ~ La
him have pie"
Lemuel was always dreadful fond
OF pie. said l. felt kind of sorry, for
1 remembered how fond poor Lemuel
lad always been of mothers pies, and