y lot in life," Jerome replied, defiantly,
"but I thought I'd go to school this winter."

"You won't grub a bit better for one more winter of schoolin'," said
his uncle, "and there's another reason--your mother, she's gettin'
older, an' Elmira, she's a good-lookin' girl, but she's gettin' wore
to skin an' bones. They're both on 'em workin' too hard. You'd ought
to try to have 'em let up a little more."

"I wouldn't have either of 'em lift a finger, if I could help it, the
Lord knows!" Jerome cried, bitterly.

Ozias nodded, grimly. "Women wa'n't calculated to work as hard as
men, nohow," he said. "Seems as if a man that's got hands, an' is
willin', might be let to keep the worst of it off 'em, but he ain't.
Seems as if I might have been able to do somethin' for Ann when Abel
quit, but I wa'n't.

"There's one thing I've got to be thankful for, an' that is--a hard
Providence ain't been able to hurt Belindy any more than it would a
feather piller. She dints a little, and cries out when she's hurt,
an' then she settles back again, smooth and comfortable as ever.

"I don't s'pose you'll understand it, J'rome, because you ain't come
to thinking of such things yet, an' showed your sense that you ain't,
but I took that very thing into account when I picked out my wife.
There was another girl that I used to see home some, but, Lord, she
was a high stepper! Handsome as a picture she was; there ain't a girl
in this town to-day that can compare with her; but her head was up,
an' her nose quiverin', an' her eyes shinin'. I knew she liked me
pretty well, but, Lord, it was no use! Might as well have set a
blooded mare to ploughin'. She was one of the sort that wouldn't have
bent under hardship; she'd have broke. I knew well enough what a
dog-life a wife of mine would have to lead--jest enough to keep body
and soul together, an' no extras--an' I wa'n't goin' to drag her into
it, an' I didn't. I knew just how she'd strain, an' work her pretty
fingers to the bone to try to keep up. I made up my mind that if I
married at all I'd marry somebody that wouldn't work more'n she could
possibly help--not if we were poor as Job's off ox.

"So I looked 'round an' got Belindy. I spelled her out right the
first time I see her. She 'ain't had nothin', but I dun'no' but she's
been jest as happy as if she had. I 'ain't let her work hard; she
'ain't never bound shoes nor done anythin' to earn a dollar since I
married her. Couldn't have kept the ot