The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1921-09-15

merely camped In kitchen and bedroom
while awaiting his wife; but Cherry
buttoned on her crisp little apron on
the first morning after her arrival, and
attacked the accumulated dishes In
the sink and the scattered shirts and
collars bravely.
For q 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 flushed the whole world with
loneliness, and she was young, and
healthy, and too busy to be home
sick.
The days went on and on, each
sweeping, marketing, folding and I'M
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 salts
fed, or it was late and a failure, when
he was very ar%ticulately disguised; 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
L.-. GIIol ls-ln- III fnAI an1xy 20
find them empty and ready to wash
again.
II get sick of itl' she told Martin.
well, Lord!' he exclaimed. Don't
you think everybody does? Don't l
get sick of my work? You ought to
have the responsibility of it all for
a while !"
His tone was ~humorously %reproving
rather thar unkind. But such d
speech would fill Cherry's eyes with
tears and cause her to go about the
house all morning with q heavy
heart.
She would find herself looking
thoughtfully at Martin in these days,
studying him as if he were IN utter
stranger. It bewjldered her to feel
that he actually was no more than
that, after two years of marriage. She
not only did not know him, but she
had a bafiied sense that the very
nearness of their union prevented her
from seeing aim fairly. She knew that
she did him injustice in her thoughts.
1t must be injustice, decided Cherry.
For Martin seemed to her less clever,
less just, less intelligent, and less
than the average man of her
acquaintance. And yet he did not
seem to impress other people in the
way he impressed her.
He was extraordinarily healthy, and
had small sympathy for illness, weak
for the unfortunate. and the
complaining. He whistled over his
dressing, read the paper at breakfast,
and was gone. At noon he rushed in,
late, devoured his lunch APP
preciatively, and was gone again. At
he was usually tired, inclined to
quarrel about small matters, inclined
to disapprove Of the new positions of
the bedroom furniture, or the way
Cherry's hair was dressed.
He loved to play poker and was hos
pitable to a certain extent. He would
whistle and joke over the prepare
tons for a rarebit after a game, and
would willingly walk five blocks for
beer if Cherry had forgotten to get 1t.
Sunday he liked to see her prettily
gowned; and then they motored
with his friends from the mine; more
often walked, ate a hearty chicken
dinner, and went to a cold supper in
the neighborhood, with Five Hun
dred' to follow. At ten their hostess
would iutter into her kitchen; there
would be lemonade and beer and rich
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 so
animated or so interested as when
men he had known before CHANGED to
lrift into town, mining men from Ne
Tada or from Ell Nido, or men he had
Known in college. They would dis
.uss personalities, would shout over
'ecollected good times, would slap
ZACH other on the back and laugh
irelessly.
She thought him an extremely diff
.ult man to live with, and vas angered
When her hints to this effect led him
remark that she was the limit"
had a serious quarrel n day,
When he told her that she was the
most selfish and spoiled woman he
ever known. He called her at
ention to the other women Of the
own, busy, contented women, sending
hildren off to school, settling babies
for maps in sunny dooryards,
and laughing and hurrying to
nd fro.
Eyes, and look at them !" Cherry
aid with ready tears. Shabby, thin, :
ired all the time !"
1.-THE trouble with you is" Martin
aid, departing, you've been told that
cure pretty and sweet all your life
you're spoiled You are pretty,
es-" he added, more mildly. But,