Year: 1875

LnuCn as my nuSOanQ 5. anu kHoW
that if he did not buy reaper we would
lose considerable grain by waiting till
some one else had leisure to cut it, and
as long as he couldn't pay for both, |
/ thought that by hiring little | could
get along without a sewing machine
without any serious loss. And then |
must say that Seth has always been kind
| O. reasonable, and whenever he was 60
ing to buy anything we talked over the
ways and means together, and SO | had
about as much to do with it as he did;
but that don't keep me from feeling cross
land out o sorts, when see other women
having new machines and everything
| else, when | know that their husbands
/ are no better able to buy them than
mine. And there comes machine
agent now. I'd set the dog onto him if
l wasn't afraid he was pizin. What busi-
ness has he to come around tantalizin
| folks with the sight of bran new ma
| chimes when they can't afford to have
one? And he's bringin one right into
the house with as much assurance as
though l had bought it and paid for it r


Good morning, madam; here's sew
| ing machine that | will leave, and if it
suits you -


90 yes, you can leave it if you want to,
but that's all the good it will do you.
] I'll do all my fall sewing on it and get
! the use of it for nothing, and then you
will have to take it away again
/ "All right, madam use it all you can;
it's one of the recommendations of our
machines, that the more you use them
the better they are; and when l can get
handy woman like yourself to take one
and use it for a few weeks, the obliga-
| tion is all on my side"


J young man, you'd better save your
soft soap for folks that's got money to
pay for it. | tell you beforehand that
my husband can't afford TO buy ma
| chine"


"If thrifty, well-to-do farmer can't
afford it, tell me who can; and the neigh
bors say that he owes just as much of
his prosperity to your prudence and
| good management as to his own energy
and industry"


"Who told you that?'


Lots of folks. That's your reputation
all oI er this county. You see, madam, a
woman like yourself cannot fail to be ap-
preciated You will find every thing be-
! longing to the machine, and printed di-
rections, in the drawer and you need
not consider yourself under any obliga-
tions to buy the machine because you
have used it. Good morning, madam.


Il s'pose he thinks he's soft soaped
that machine right on to me, but that's
all the good it will do him. There
comes Seth, walkin up the path, lookin'
as happy and contented as though | had
every thing that woman could wish for.
I'll make him believe I've bought it, and
see if he'll look as pleasant as though his
path lay over bed of roses,
II don't suppose you'll have any OBJ
jections to signing note for sewing
machine if the agent should call again
tomorrow p
why, Nancy, l hope you didn't run
in debt for it, You know l always buy
for cash, and it saves large per cent"


81 didn't have any cash to buy it with.


"Why didn't you wait till l came
home? p


''Yol - been at home great many
times, and didn't get machine,
either"


But, Nancy, you know that's not my
way of doing business


What is your way OF doing business
but to wait and put off getting anything
until the last patch is put on and worn
through 2"


But sewing machine is luxury, and
we have not begun to indulge in luxu
ries yet


You said the new reaper was luxu-
ry when you first used it.


Now, Nancy, to tell the honest truth,
DON you feel kind O 'sharned O your
self for running me IN debt for sewing
machine?"


mo, you don't look half so mad as l
thought you would. l wish l had
bought half a dozen. What are you
laughing at? If it makes you laugh like
that to buy a sewing machine, I'll go to
town to morrow and get a new carpet,
and curtains, and furniture to correspond
with it"


"No you won't; because you've got the
prettiest rag carpet in the county, and
your plain white curtains correspond
with it exactly, and both correspond
with our house and circumstances; but /
was laughing to hear you try to make me
believe that you run i'll debt for that ma
chine when l bought it myself, and sent
it home not an hour ago"


You didn't, you hadn't the money.


II did. l sold the cattle and got my
pay before / left town


"Well, there's nothing on earth so de-
ceitful as men and machine agents.


"Unless you except women who run
their husbands in debt for sewing ma
chimes. This is about the first that l
ever got the best of the joke; amt it,
Nancy? l remember that | promised
you new bureau and an alpaca dress
last spring, ana Gnen nau nafQef WORK
to raise money than | calculated on, and
would have been obliged to sell the cat
tie last spring if you had not managed,
and planned, and economical. and de-
MED yourself to help me. and | made
three hundred dollars by keeping them
till fall, and l thought half of it Justly
belonged to you. l paid seventy-five
dollars for the machine, and here's sew
enty-five dollars more to do what you
please with. Go to town and buy the
incest, shiniest piece of alpaca you can
find, and bureau, and take the rest in
jewelry, if you want to"


II don't really need anything but the
alpaca and bureau. I'll buy young cattle
with what I've left, and then when
want another alpaca, the profit will more
than buy it"


Mr. Brooks wants to sell his cattle.
Mr. Griffin has toreclosed the mortgage
on the Brooks farm"


HE has? l thought he was going to
give him another years time"


HE had intended to, but he said a
man that went in debt for every new
piece of machinery that came along,
could never pay off a mortgage, and the
sooner he got done with him the better"


Perhaps if he knew that Mr.. Brooks
was Obliged to buy great many things
to keep peace in the family, he might
show him little more clemency."


He does know it, and he said that
whether he lived beyond his means to
crafty an angel or to pacify a devil, it
took money to pay for it, all the same.