Putnam patriot., 1914-01-09


 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 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', and Reuben did the sweepin'. and Lemuel, he was the youngest, next to me, did the cookin'. He could cook dinner equal to any woman, and his pies beat mine. My husband said so, and I 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 must say I was Hstonished 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 a 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 Lemuel. That poor boy would never have got 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 nished and everything, so of course Lemuel he went to live with her, and Mehitable's house was pretty near where I lived, so I could see every thing that was goin' on. It want very long before I said to Hannah Morse, my husbands old maid sister that lives with us and teaches school, that I believed Lemuei was henpecked,
  hitable.
 q 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. We'll" said I, q hope poor Lemuel will be happy. He's always been such a good, mild, willin' 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 gHess,' said Hannah Morse. For long while thought she was right It was really pitiful to see Lemuel. He didn't have Eo more lib erty nor will Of his own than 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 Manys 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.
 Mehitable she bought ali his clothes. an she favored long-tailed coats, and he bein' such short man never looked well in 'em, and she wouldn't let 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 LeRuel, and know he suffered everything, both in his pride an his feelin's. Lemuel began to look real downtrod. He didn't seem like bah such a man as he did, and the queerest thing about it was: Mehit able didn't pear to like the work oi her own hands, so to speak.
 One day she talked to me about it "I dunno what 'tis,' said she, but Lemuel he don't seem to have no SC ahead and nc ambition and no will oi his own. He tries to please me, but it don't seem as ii he had grit enough SNSA lOl t41dA- s5O1ltll1lCc l thlAh lc aint well, but danno what ails him. I've been real careful of him. He's worE thick fanneIs. and he's had wholesome victuaIs; l ain't never let him have pie"
 "Lemnel was always dreadful fond of pie" said I. felt kind of sorry, for l remembered how fond poor Lemuel had always been of mothers pies, and what good caes he used te make him self.
 T know it." said Mehitabie. He wanted to make some himself. when we were first married, but vetoed that. ] wasn't goin' to have man messin' round maxim pie1. and I want goin' to have him eatin' of 'em after they were made. Pies ain't good for him. But declare dunno what does make him aef 90 kind of spiritiess. ! told him today thought he'd better make . resolution for the New Year and stick to it. and see if it wouldn't put some spunk into him"
 Pretty soon she went home ! could see che was real kind of troubled. She always did think a good deal of Lem- uel in spite Of everything.
 The next day was New Years, and