The patriot. [volume] (Indiana, Pa.) 1914-1955, 1916-12-09
|BrokenPeace
By F. A. Mitchell

pendent as wood saWyerS clerk,
when that consarned Jim Simpson
come along and put an idea into my
head that spilled the hull business.
had jist done my weeks washin' O. the
dishes, havin' put 'em on to the wagon
and driv 'em into the crick and mOpped
'em, and was takin' out the horses
when Jim come along.
What y been doin'?'' he says.
"Washin' the dishes. Next week l
got to change the sheets, SEEM they
hain't been changed in two months
Saturday'lI be the last, day O the
month, and that's my sweepin' day"
"By gum, Enoch," says Jim, that
hain't no kind O. work for q man.
Why don't y git wife to do 1t for
your"
81 don't see," says l, how any wo-
man could do 1t any better'n 1. She'd
take a lot more time about it, and
mebbe the winders would git washed
occasionally, but my opinion is that a
woman Is always kickin' up dust for
nothin'. My way O. doin' it Is to let
the dust git settled before disturbin' it
again. Y can't git woman to do that"
Jim and l walked to the house, and
he come in. Fact is he wanted to find
somepin to find fault with. And he
did. He said that it was the dirtiest
house he'd ever been In. When he was
goin' away he said:
'Enoch, / got a wife that when we
was first married used to stir up the
dust a lot 1 complained, and she told
me that If I preferred dust in bulk
rather than at retail she didn't. She
said q mans place wasn't in the house
anyway when a woman was cleanin'.
So made it pint to find sOmepin to
do outside when she was stirrin' IN the
dirt, and when l come back again ev-
erything looked sp1ck and span, and l
got used to havin' it that away and
couldn't stand it t'Other way"
cts all matter O. habit" says.
Jim went away, but he'd put flea
into my ear. There was a likely gal
at Bunker's farm-Bunkers wife's sis
ter. 1 reckoned that I'd go down and
see her. Mebbe might take her in
for the house work If she'd come. Nat
urally got to tellin' her how washed
the dishes and the other things. She
larfed and said that was very ingen-
lous. She'd never thought about dom
dishes that away. And as for sweep
In, she thort my way o. leavin' the
dust to settle before stirriH' It up again
/ 1Hnn An hmk eli
right for man who didn't know how
to do sich things without lot o. trouble
'Well, D0t up to her for a month or
30 On Sunday nights, at the end Of
which time we was married and went
60 nay house 30 live. My Aunt Emily
says to me afore was chained, says
she. "Enoch, you don't mean to take q
wife into that house O. yourn without
havtn' some woman go into it and cart
away the dirt, do your And I says:
Aunt Emily, what I'm gittin' married
for iS to have some one to keep the
house In order. She mought as well
begin at the beginnin'." Aunt Emily
says, says she: "Yer beginnin' the
wrong way. When q couple starts In
to keep house together they ought to
have smooth sailin' at the commence
ment. Instead o. that, you're goin' to
begin with a fine inducement for
scrap"
was mighty feared when she said
this that I'd better have gone on as
was, but it was too late for that now.
So TUX my wife right inter the house
just as it was.
"Enoch," she says, take all the
buckets and go out to the well and fill
EN-"
did this, and when l came back
found that my bride had taken of her
weddin' outfit and put on scrubbin' uni
form. That was the beginnin' Of 1t.
The first quarter O. the honeymoon was
given up to a whirlwind o. dust; then
buckets o. soap and water and all sorts
O. dirt KILN contrivances come on.
Just as was hOpin' the end was COM
In and the furniture would be put
where 1t belonged, another cleanup
commenced that took up what remained
O. the honeymoon.
After the clean1D' had wore me out
said, 81 s'pose we kin rest"
'No," she says. "I've been a month
putin the house in order, but while
I've been dom one thing the dust has
been accumulatin' elsewhere. The first
week washed the winders. That's
three weeks ago. got to wash 'em
again"
"How about the sweepin'P' l asked.
gloomy like.
''The sweepin' IL come the day after
the winders is washed"
One day-it was in the last week O.
the honeymoon was walkin' along
the road comm toward my happy
home, over which hung a cloud O. dust,
when / met Jim Simpson.
"Look a-there," 1 says, pointin' to the
house. That's what y done by dis
satisfyin' me about my housekeepin'.
els yer house afire?' he says.
NO" says l, seem stream O. wa
ter beat1n' agin the upper story
That's my wife playin' the hose on