Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1914-01-01


first but all of the boys had been used
to helpin' ma a good deal, and they
were real handy, and when | asked If
they wasn't goin' to have a 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 had to give in they did.
Well, 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 l must
say was astonished when Lemuel he
up and got married to Mehitable
Pierce. She was little along in
years, too, rather more SO than Lem
uel, and a dreadful smart piece. She
was good lookn' and she had property,
but she was dreadful smart and up an
comm. | 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 1t
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 a fix If that woman hadn't up
an asked him, an he didn't have
spunk 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
Lemuel he went to live with her, and
Mehitable's house was pretty near
where | lived, so l could see every
thing that was goin' on. 1t want very
long before l said to Hannah Morse,
my husbands old maid sister that
lives with us and teaches school, that
I believed Lemuel was henpecked,
though | 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 II Hannah would have had
Lemuel if he'd asked her. WELL" said
I, II hope poor Lemuel will be happy.
He's always been such good, mild,
willin' boy that 1t does seem 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. 1t was really pitiful to see
Lemuel He didn't have no more lib
erty nor will Of his own than a five
yearold 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 1t, 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 90 out, and
she'd tell him to set down, and he's
set without murmur.
Mehitable she bought all his clothes,
an she favored long-tailed coats. and
he bein' such a short man never
looked we'll 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 Lemuel, and know
he suffered everything, both in his
pride an, his feelin's. Lemuel began
to look real downtrod. He didn't seem
like half such man as he did, and the
queerest thing about 1t was: MehitI
able didn't pear to like the work of
her own hands, so to speak.
One day she talked to me about 1t.
I 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 as II he had grit enough
even for that Sometimes l think he
amt WE'LL but dunno what ails him.
I've been real careful of him. He's
worn thick fannels, and he's had
wholesome vfctuals; amt 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