Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1921-11-25
CHAPTER VIII.
cry aGail


town of any size near the mine. Red
Creek was in a fruit-farming and
dairy region and looked its prettiest
on the spring evening when Cherry
saw it first.
Her little house was cottage with
a porch running across the front,
where windows looked out from the
sitting room and the front bedroom.
Back of these rooms were a dark lit
tie bathroom that connected the front
bedroom with another smaller bed
ROOM little dining room and a
kitchen. Martin, man-fashion, had
merely camped in kitchen and bedroom
while awaiting his wife; but Cherry
buttoned on her crisp little apron Oh
the first morning after her arrival, and
attacked the accumulated dishes In
the sink and the scattered shirts and
collars bravely.
For few weeks the novelty lasted
and Cherry was enthusiastic about
everything. She looked out across her
dishpan at green fields and the begin
ming of the farms; she saw the lilacs
burst into fragrant plumes on the
bare branches of her dooryard tree;
spring fiushed the whole world with
loveliness, and she was young, and
healthy, and too busy to be home
sick.
The days went on and on, each
bringing it's round Of dishes, beds.
sweeping, marketing, folding and un-
folding tablecloths, going back and
forth between kitchen and dining
room. Martins breakfast was either
promptly served and well cooked, In
which case Martin was silently satis-
fed, or II was late and failure, when
he was very artlcuately disgusted; In
either case Cherry was left to clear
and wash and plan for another meal
in four hours more. She soaked fruit,
beat up cake, chopped boxes into
kindlings, heated a kettle Of water
and another kettle of water, dragged
sheets from the bed only to replace
them, filled dishes with food only to
find them empty and ready 10 wash
again.
II get sick of it !" she told Martin.
"Well, Lord" he exclaimed. Don't
you think everybody doc: Gant l
get sick of my work? You ought to
have the responsibility OF It all for
q whilem
His tone was humorously rear0vlng
rather than unkind. But su?h u
speech would fill Chercy's eyes with
tears and cause her 20 20 abou. he
house all morning with a heavy
heart.
She would find hcrsrlf looking
thoughtfully at Martin in tLese days,
studying him as if he were IN utter
stranger. 1t bewjIdc:eG lcr n feel
that he actually was 10 moro titan
that, after two years Cf mar:ilg". She
not only did not kEo:" him, bu. she
had Il hallrd sense that tire Very
ncarncSS oC their unio:, pre- Hrtrt' her
from seeing him fairly. She ineW ;Ani
she did him Injustice IN her thoughts.
1t must be injustice, decided Cherry.
For Martin seemed TO h"r less clever,
less just, less intelligent. and less
generous than The avciage man ~ Ser
acquaintance. And yet Ec did not
seem TO impress other people la the
way he impressed her.
lie wsT extraordinarily healthy. +aa
had small sympathy for Illness. Nra1'
n1ss, fer the unfOr;nratr, and tla
complaining. He whistlcd over his
dressing read the paper at breakfast,
and was gone. At noon he rushed III,
always late, devourcd his lunch ap-
preciatively, and was gone again. AZ
night he WAS usually tired, inclined to
quarrel about small matters, inclined
to diSappaove Of the new positions Of
the bedroom furniture, or tho way
| Chcrry'S hair was dressed. 5
He loved TO play poker and was los
pitabe to a certain extent. He would
b NllISllt anu JUNE ONOl lliN piNp''"
items for rarebt after game, and
would willingly walk five blocks for
beer if Cherry had forgotten to get IT..
On Sunday he liked to see her Frettily
gOwned; now and then they mOtOred
with his friends from the mine; more
often walked, ate a hearty chicken
dinner, and went 10 q cold supper in
the neighbOrhOOd, with Five Hun
dred" to follow. At ten their hostess
would nutter into her kitchen; there
would be lemonade and beer ard rich
1 layer cake. Then the men would be-
/ gin to match poker hands, and the
women to discuss babies in low tones.
Cherry never saw her husband -
7 animated or SO interested rs when
men he had known before Glanced TO
: drift into town, mining men from Ne
vada or from FL Nido, or men he had
known in college. They would dis
/ cuSS personalities, would shout over
recollected good times would slap
! each other on the back and laugh