The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1922-01-12
CHAPTER VIII.

Martins work was In the Contra
Costa valley, and he and Cherry had
small house i'm Red Creek, the only
town of any size near the mine. Red
Creek was i'm 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 dark lit
tie bathroom that connected the front
bedroom with another smaller bed
room, little dining room and q
kitchen. Martin, man-fashion, had
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 brayely.
For a few weeks the novelty lasted
and Cherry was enthusiastic about
everything. She looked out across her
dishpan at greeu 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
bringing its 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 salts
fed, or it was late and failure, when
he was very articulately 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 10 replace
them, filed dishes with food only to
find them empty and ready to wash
again.
81 get sick of It I" she told Martin.
"Well, Lord!" he exclaimed. Don't
you think everybody does? Don't l
get sick of my work2 You ought TO
have the responsibility of it all for
a while!"
His tone was humOrously reproving
rather than unkind. But such a
speech would fill Cherry's eyes with
tears and cause her to go about the
house all morning with heavy
heart.
She would find herself looking
thOughtfully at Martin in these days,
studying him as if he were an utter
stranger. IL bewldered 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 baftled sense that the very
nearness of their union prevented her
from seeing him fairly. She knew that
she did him Injustice in her thoughts
1t must be Injustice, decided Cherry
For Martin seemed 10 her less clever
less just, less intelligent, and less
generous than the average man of her
acquaintance. And yet he did not
seem to impress other people in the
way ne impressed her.
He was extraordinarily healthy, and
had small sympathy for illness, weak.
ness, for the unfortunate and the
complaining. He whistled over his
dressing, read the paper at breakfast
and was gone. At noon he rushed in,
always late, devOured his lunch ap.
precintively, and was gone again. Al
night lac was usually tired, inclined I'd
quarrel about small matters, inclined
to dlsapprove of the new positions OF
the bedroom furniture, or the way
Cherry'S hair was dressed.
He loved TO play poker and was hos
pltahle 20 certain extent. He would
whistle and joke over the prepara.
lions for rarebit after a game, and
would willingly walk five blocks for
beer IL Cherry had forgotten to get IT,
On Sunday he liked to see her prettily
gowned now and then they motored
with bis friends from the mine; more
often walked, ate a hearty chicken
dinner, and went to a cold supper In
the neighborhOod, with give Hun
dred' to follow. At ten their hostess
would futter into her kitchen; there
wOul1 be lemonade and beer and ricl
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 So
animated or so Interested as wher
;nnn he had known before CHANGED e