He Fell In Love With His Wife by Edward Payson Roe (best books to read for students TXT) đ
- Author: Edward Payson Roe
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taken advantage of his need and induced him to assume the burden through false
representation. To a man of Holcroftâs simple, straightforward nature, any
phase of trickery was intensely repugnant, and the fact that he had been
overreached in a matter relating to his dearest hopes galled him to the quick.
He possessed the strong common sense of his class; his wife had been like him
in this respect, and her influence had intensified the trait. Queer people
with abnormal manners excited his intense aversion. The most charitable view
that he could take of Mrs. Mumpson was that her mindâsuch as she hadâwas
unbalanced, that it was an impossibility for her to see any subject or duty in
a sensible light or its right proportions.
Her course, so prejudicial to her own interests, and her incessant and stilted
talk, were proof to his mind of a certain degree of insanity, and he had heard
that people in this condition often united to their unnatural ways a wonderful
degree of cunning. Her child was almost as uncanny as herself and gave him a
shivering sense of discomfort whenever he caught her small, greenish eyes
fixed upon him.
âYet, sheâll be the only one whoâll earn her salt. I donât see how Iâm going
to stand âemâI donât, indeed, but suppose Iâll have to for three months, or
else sell out and clear out.â
By the time he reached town a cold rain had set in. He went at once to the
intelligence office, but could obtain no girl for Mrs. Mumpson to
âsuperintend,â nor any certain promise of one. He did not much care, for he
felt that the new plan was not going to work. Having bartered all his eggs
for groceries, he sold the old stove and bought a new one, then drew from the
bank a little ready money. Since his butter was so inferior, he took it to
his friend Tom Watterly, the keeper of the poorhouse.
Prosperous Tom slapped his old friend on the back and said, âYou look awfully
glum and chopfallen, Jim. Come now, donât look at the world as if it was made
of tar, pitch, and turpentine. I know your luckâs been hard, but you make it
a sight harder by being so set in all your ways. You think thereâs no place
to live on Godâs earth but that old up-and-downhill farm of yours that I
wouldnât take as a gift. Why, man alive, thereâs a dozen things you can turn
your hand to; but if you will stay there, do as other men do. Pick out a
smart, handy woman that can make butter yaller as gold, thatâll bring gold,
and not such limpsy-slimsy, ghostly-looking stuff as youâve brought me. Beinâ
itâs you, Iâll take it and give as much for it as Iâd pay for better, but you
canât run your old ranch in this fashion.â
âI know it, Tom,â replied Holcroft ruefully. âIâm all at sea; but, as you say,
Iâm set in my ways, and Iâd rather live on bread and milk and keep my farm
than make money anywhere else. I guess Iâll have to give it all up, though,
and pull out, but itâs like rooting up one of the old oaks in the meadow lot.
The fact is, Tom, Iâve been fooled into one of the worst scrapes Iâve got into
yet.â
âI see how it is,â said Tom heartily and complacently, âyou want a practical,
foresighted man to talk straight at you for an hour or two and clear up the
fog youâre in. You study and brood over little things out there alone until
they seem mountains which you canât get over nohow, when, if youâd take one
good jump out, theyâd be behind you. Now, youâve got to stay and take a bite
with me, and then weâll light our pipes and untangle this snarl. No backing
out! I can do you more good than all the preachinâ you ever heard. Hey,
there, Bill!â shouting to one of the paupers who was detailed for such work,
âtake this team to the barn and feed âem. Come in, come in, old feller!
Youâll find that Tom Watterly allus has a snack and a good word for an old
crony.â
Holcroft was easily persuaded, for he felt the need of cheer, and he looked up
to Tom as a very sagacious, practical man. So he said, âPerhaps you can see
farther into a millstone than I can, and if you can show me a way out of my
difficulties youâll be a friend sure enough.â
âWhy, of course I can. Your difficulties are all here and here,â touching his
bullet head and the region of his heart. âThere aint no great difficulties in
fact, but, after youâve brooded out there a week or two alone, you think
youâre caught as fast as if you were in a bear trap. Here, Angy,â addressing
his wife, âIâve coaxed Holcroft to take supper with us. You can hurry it up a
little, canât you?â
Mrs. Watterly gave their guest a cold, limp hand and a rather frigid welcome.
But this did not disconcert him. âItâs only her way,â he had always thought.
âShe looks after her husbandâs interests as mine did for me, and she donât
talk him to death.â
This thought, in the main, summed up Mrs. Watterlyâs best traits.
She was a commonplace, narrow, selfish woman, whose character is not worth
sketching. Tom stood a little in fear of her, and was usually careful not to
impose extra tasks, but since she helped him to save and get ahead, he
regarded her as a model wife.
Holcroft shared in his opinion and sighed deeply as he sat down to supper.
âAh, Tom!â he said, âyouâre a lucky man. Youâve got a wife that keeps
everything indoors up to the mark, and gives you a chance to attend to your
own proper business. Thatâs the way it was with mine. I never knew what a
lopsided, helpless creature a man was until I was left alone. You and I were
lucky in getting the women we did, but when my partner left me, she took all
the luck with her. That aint the worst. She took whatâs more than luck and
money and everything. I seemed to lose with her my grit and interest in most
things. Itâll seem foolishness to you, but I canât take comfort in anything
much except working that old farm that Iâve worked and played on ever since I
can remember anything. Youâre not one of those fools, Tom, that have to learn
from their own experience. Take a bit from mine, and be good to your wife
while you can. Iâd give all Iâm worthâI know that aint muchâif I could say
some things to my wife and do some things for her that I didnât do.â
Holcroft spoke in the simplicity of a full and remorseful heart, but he
unconsciously propitiated Mrs. Watterly in no small degree. Indeed, she felt
that he had quite repaid her for his entertainment, and the usually taciturn
woman seconded his remarks with much emphasis.
âWell now, Angy,â said Tom, âif you averaged up husbands in these parts I
guess youâd find you were faring rather better than most women folks. I let
you take the bit in your teeth and go your own jog mostly. Now, own up, donât
I?â
âThat wasnât my meaning, exactly, Tom,â resumed Holcroft. âYou and I could
well afford to let our wives take their own jog, for they always jogged steady
and faithful and didnât need any urging and guiding. But even a dumb critter
likes a good word now and then and a little patting on the back. It doesnât
cost us anything and does them a sight of good. But we kind of let the
chances slip by and forget about it until like enough itâs too late.â
âWell,â replied Tom, with a deprecatory look at his wife, âAngy donât take to
pettinâ very much. She thinks itâs a kind of foolishness for such middle-aged
people as weâre getting to be.â
âA husband can show his consideration without blarneying,â remarked Mrs.
Watterly coldly. âWhen a man takes on in that way, you may be sure he wants
something extra to pay for it.â
After a little thought Holcroft said, âI guess itâs a good way to pay for it
between husband and wife.â
âLook here, Jim, since youâre so well up on the matrimonial question, why in
thunder donât you marry again? That would settle all your difficulties,â and
Tom looked at his friend with a sort of wonder that he should hesitate to take
this practical, sensible course.
âItâs very easy for you to say, âWhy donât you marry again?â If you were in
my place youâd see that there are things in the way of marrying for the sake
of having a good butter maker and all that kind of thing.â
âMr. Watterly wouldnât be long in comforting himself,â remarked his
wife.ââHis advice to you makes the course heâd take mighty clear.â
âNow, Angy!â said Tom reproachfully. âWell,â he added with a grin, âyouâre
forewarned. So youâve only to take care of yourself and not give me a
chance.â
âThe trouble is,â Holcroft resumed, âI donât see how an honest man is going to
comfort himself unless it all comes about in some natural sort of way. I
suppose there are people who can marry over and over again, just as easy as
theyâd roll off a log. It aint for me to judge âem, and I donât understand
how they do it. You are a very practical man, Tom, but just you put yourself
in my shoes and see what youâd do. In the first place, I donât know of a
woman in the world that Iâd think of marrying. Thatâs saying nothing against
the women,âthereâs lots too good for me,âbut I donât know âem and I canât go
around and hunt âem up. Even if I could, with my shy, awkward ways, I
wouldnât feel half so nervous starting out on a bear hunt. Hereâs difficulty
right at the beginning. Supposing I found a nice, sensible woman, such as Iâd
be willing to marry, there isnât one chance in a hundred sheâd look at an old
fellow like me. Another difficulty: Supposing she would; suppose she looked
me square in the eyes and said, âSo you truly want a wife?â what in thunder
would I say then?âI donât want a wife, I want a housekeeper, a butter maker,
one that would look after my interests as if they were her own; and if I could
hire a woman that would do what I wish, Iâd never think of marrying. I canât
tell a woman that I love her when I donât. If I went to a minister with a
woman Iâd be deceiving him, and deceiving her, and perjuring myself
promiscuously. I married once according to law and gospel and I was married
through and through, and I canât do the thing over again in any way that would
seem to me like marrying at all. The idea of me sitting by the fire and
wishing that the woman who sat on the tâother side of the stove was my first
wife! Yet I couldnât help doing this any more than breathing. Even if there
was any chance of my succeeding I canât see anything square or honest in my
going out and hunting up a wife as a mere matter of business. I know other
people do it and Iâve thought a good deal about it myself, but when it comes
to the point of acting
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