The evening Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1918-1920, 1919-02-21

DlttCE. w lldC c1ldllCC mas woman
got back here in this forsaken coun-
try?-tell me that-just tell me that!
No matter how fine her ambitions or
how badly she longs to better herself,
tell me what chance she's got when
the menfolks amt no better than
you've seen round these parts since
you was old enough to know about
things?"
The daughter remained silent.
"What chance has a farmers wife
got anyhow" the mother cried, all
the ganglion sorrow of her heart in
the tone of her voice "We're born
IF poor folks off on some lonely weed
grown country road. We grow up
with no society but goin' down to
the general store or Sunday meeh
81 an occasional dance. We get what
education we can at some white coun-.
;ry schoolhouse taught by a girl
who'd be in a place in some city
school if she knew enough herself.
Then soon's we reach the place
where we're a financial drag on
,ur folks, the boys come courtin. %
! 81 know, mother, | know" SYM
pathized the girl.
"They're boys same as their fathers
vas before 'em, went on the mother,
md same as their fathers was before
hem. They got no ambition. They
lon't know nothin' but farmin'. Their
ideas O. bein' men and growed-up is
chewin' tobacco, smokin' pipes, say
in swear words and considerin'
womenfolks as possession to run a
farm with like a plow or a horse. We
marry 'em because we don't know
what's in the world and feel fiattered
by their attentions. Or we become
wives because it's disgraceful to be
IN old maid, or because we just have
70 get out into home of our own, or
cause we amt never met real men!"
you're getting yourself all worked
up, mother" declared the girl
eve marry such as ask US, usually
the first askin', and go off to lonely
farms in the hills. Then quick
enough the mask O. holy matrimony
S stripped away! Life?-it turns out
Just plain hard work, and sutferIn
and goin' without things, bein' abused,
stayin' alone, kept from havin' money
to spend for ourselves, bearin' child
rem, fightin' the silence till death or
insanity comes as blessin' She
choked a bit Historically and the
girl put out her hand, but it had no
effect
We have to have children when
they don't want 'em," she cried, "and
when our menfolks want 'em less'n
they do. We get up before daylight
and through the long hours O. fore
noon, afternoon, and into the night
we slave with our work all cut out
for years, years weary years,
with no thanks, no praise, no money,
no cooperation, just existence, that's
all, just plain existence! Don't
make no difference how much work
We do, Mary, it don't get US nowhere;
: we just have to take what the men
folks hand out and endure in silence
! and if we buck up and run away
from it all, we're bad women and
| lackin' character!''
Il chow, mother, / knoww
ats a hard, rough lot we got,
Mary, with precious little at the end
of it but a funeral in some village
church, the lowerin' into a grave in
some quiet hillside cemetery runnin'
mostly to briafbloom and rank grass
and weeds. And the grass soon
enough grows over our grave, and
hides even our name, and the date
on our headstone."
Don't, mother!" the girl pleaded
piteously, don't talk that way"
II can't help talking that way. ]
been putin up with it, just for
your sake, Mary-so's maybe / could
! keep you from doin' what | have done.
/ married Pa Wheeler SOS maybe I'd
have a home and you'd have a home
and maybe a father to help you He
was nice enough to me SO long as !
was only his housekeeper-you know
that. ] thought, O. course, it'd keep
1 up after we was man and wife. II
| been so happy that ono brief year
with your father that I'd clean forgot
my own mothers hard time. But
just as soon as the new wore off,