Connecticut western news., 1922-04-06
MIR. AND MRS. CLARK
 MARRIED FORTY YEARS
Essay by Harriet L. Clark of Boston Uni
 versity
Especial to the Newsl

SGAh 1AAoWOAd DAOWh. \ uG W6uQlIR trip made with horse and buggy across the Goshen Hills and down Mohawk Mountain to the Clark Homestead consumed some time, for that was just before automobiles were invented. When the bridal couple arriHed they found house of mourning, for Mrs. Sheldon Clark, mother of the groom, had succumbed to brief attack of pneumonia and his two sisters were very i'll at the house. The wedding cake was placed on the supper table without merri- ment and the wedding flowers were made into a funeral wreath. But in letter, still prized by her sister, now Mrs. Edward Humphrey, of Winchester, Connecticut, the bride described the sorrow of the next few days and also her great happiness in her new life.
 It is only forty years but somehow much seems to have happened at Mohawk Farms. When fifteen years had passed the young couple had welcomed the stork six times, and two sons and four daughters had come to make the old Farmstead a lively place indeed. But even before the last two arrived, the townsmen had voted for the young husband and father to represent his native town in the Legislature at Hartford.
 How. much was taught the young sters as the family sat about the supper table. Sometimes there was civics lesson. When the elder son was first to vote, the whole family acted out a town meeting, marking ballots and going through the booths. Last year the youngest daughter was one of the first women to cast presidential vote in Cornwall. Again the father read editorials and ser mons to the group. To tell the truth, thesa- dry subjects caused the young est girls to tip-toe after many a drink of water, and in spite of all their care the kitchen door would bang! But life was not always serious and solemn. MT. Clark who has keen sense of humor and rare ability for telling a good story had very ap- preciative audience there about the table. What fun when he came home ard told of the people he had seen, initiating their voices and manner isms but with no congregations nor grotesqueness! If one rides with him to-day through the town, he can tell most entertainingly of the people who have lived in each house.
 Nothing kept the children from school On rainy days the father hitched up the horses and took them the mile and quarter to school, stop ping along the way to take in the neighbor'S children. In winter the children were loaded on the wood shod sled and covered up with blan- kets while the horses plunged thro' the drifts and the road was broken out.
 From every barn a team afoot
 At every house a new recruit.
 There were no bills sent into the town for transportation of children nor for shoveling snow. All thro' the winter the horses were hitched up twice a day to carry the children and to go after them at night in addition to the care of large dairy and marketing of butter and the gen. eral farm work. ..
 What patience the father had with the destruction and loss of tools as the children constructed doll furni- ture, games, toys, chicken coops and rabbit pens or just whittled for the joy of it! j ' MT. Clark often says "There are so many disadvantages in living on a farm. We are going to have some of the advantages" So there has never been any stint in the use of butter and cream. The children always found bag of candy among the groceries, when the father had been to town. Once he had a very serious fall from load of grain try ing to avoid sitting on a package of fig newtons which he was bringing home to the youngsters. Again when the horses once ran away, and broke up a bran-new moving ma chine, the father ran home sick at heart wondering where his little daughters were playing and if they were out of danger. In the mean time the mother seeing the run-aways coming ran out with a broom and turned the wild horses from rushing up the mountain road into the angle made by the ell of the house and the wood-pile and stopped them.
 We'll may the children rise up and call the mother blessed. Though always so busy she never lacked time to listen and grant the plea, "Hold me two minutes" It must be con- fessed, too, that she often loved and cared for the pets; the kittens, white mice, rabbits, little chickens, and
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