Camas Prairie chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1901-1917, 1917-03-09
BrokenPeace
By F. A. Mitchell

was SlICm on well enough indie
pendent as wood sawyers clerk,
when that consumed Jim Simpson
come along and put an idea into nv
head that spilled the hull business.
hadcj ist done my weeks washin' O. the
dishes, havin' put 'em on to the wagon
and drtv 'em into the crick and mopped
EN-, 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
hatn't been changed in two months.
Saturday'll 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 man.
Why don't y git a wife to do it for
your"
Il don't see,' says l, "how any wo-
man could do it any better'n l. Shed
take lot more time about it. and
mebbe the winders would git washed
occasionally. but my opinion Is that
woman is always kickin' up a dust for
nothin'. My way O. dom it is to let
the dust git settled before disturbin' 1t
again. Y can't git woman to do that"
Jim and 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 lot. l complained, and she told
me that If | preferred dust in bulk
rather than at retail she didn't. She
said mans place wasn't in the house
anyway when a woman was cleanin'.
So l made 1t a pint to find somepin to
do outside when she was stirrin' up the
dirt, and when 1 come back again ev-
erything looked spick and span, and
got used to havin' it that away and
couldn't stand it tother way"
Its 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-Bunker's wifes sis
ter. reckoned that I'd go down and
see her. Mebbe l 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 l was very ingen-
ious. 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 stirrin' it up again
was a good idea. Anyway that was all
right for a man who didn't know how
to do SIGH things without lot O. trouble
"Well, 1 sot up to her for a month or
so on Sunday nights, at the end Of
which time we was married and went
to my house to live. My Aunt Emily
says to me afOre l was chained, says
she, "Enoch, you don't mean to take q
wife into that house O. yourn without
havin' some woman go into it and cart
away the dirt, do your And l 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: Eyer beginnin' the
wrong way. When a 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 a
scrap"
was mighty feared when she said
this that I'd better have gone on as l
was, but 1t was too late for that now.
So TUX my wife right inter the house
just as 1t was.
tSInooh hc IknIyn oil fhn
buckets and go out to the we'll and ill
EN-"
/, did this, and when l came back ]
found that my bride had taken off her
weddin' OUTFIT and put on scrubbin' uni
form. That was the beginn1n' of it.
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 cleanin' had wore me out
said, IT s'pose we kin rest"
NO. Sue says VIC OCCh a hhOhIh
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. l got to wash 'em
again"
"How about the sweepin'T' asked
gloomy like.
1.-THE sweepin' II 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 cloud O. dust,
when met Jim Simpson.
Look a-there," says, pointin' to the
house. That's what y done by dis
satisfyin' ne about my housekeepin'. !"
"Is yer house afire?" he says.
mo" says l, SEEM stream O. wa
ter beatin' agin the upper story.
That's my wife playin' the hose on
the winders."
"Goo'by," says Jim, and he lit out.
I'm gittin' used to it now, and 1t
don't trouble me so much as it did, but
/ often sigh for the happy, quiet times