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Article CATHERINE CARMICHAEL; on, THREE YEARS RUNNING. ← Page 4 of 15 →
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Catherine Carmichael; On, Three Years Running.
her , unless it was this dry old man . Tho young man certainly did not want her . Then in her sorrow she allowed herself to be crushed , in spite of the' strength for which she had given herself credit . She was astounded , almost stupefied , so that she had no words with which to assert herself . When she was told that the hard , dry man would find a home for hershe had no reason to ive whit should not be so . When she did
, g y not at first refuse to be taken away across the mountains , she had failed to realize what it all meant . When she reached Warriwa , and the waters in the pathless , unbridged rivers had not closed over her head , —then she realized it . She was the man's wife , and she hated him . She had never kuown before what it was to hate a human being . She had always been helpful , and it is our nature to love those we help . Even the rough men who would lure her father away to drink had been
her friends . " Oh , Dick , " she would Say , to the roughest of the rough , putting her hand prayerfully on the man's sleeve , '' do not ask him to-night ; " and the rough man would go from the shanty for the time . She would have mended his jacket for him willingly , or washed his shirt . Though the world had been very hard to her , she had hated no one . Now , she hated a man "with all the strength of her heart , and he was her husband .
It was good for the man , though whether good for herself or not she could never tell , thathe did not know that he was hated . " Now , old woman ; here yoti'll have a real home , " he said , as he allowed ker to jump out of the buggy in which he had driven her all the way from Christehurch ; " you'll find things tidier than you ever had ' em away at Hokitika . " She jumped down on the yard into which he had driven , with a bandbox in her handand passed into the house by aback door . As she did so a dirt
, . very y old woman , —folder looking , certainly , than any she had ever seen away among the golddiggings , —followed her from the kitchen , which was built apart , a little to the rear of the house . " So you be the new wife , be ye ? " said the old woman . " Yes ; I am Mr . Canniehael ' s wife . Are you the servant ?" "I don't know nothing about servants . I does for ' un , —what he can't do for ' . nnself . You'll be doing for 'un all now , I guess . " Then her husband followed
her in and desired her to come and help to unload the buggy . Anything to be ' done was a relief to her . If she could load and unload the buggy night and day it would be better than anything else she could see in prospect before her . Then there came a Maori in a blanket , to assist in carrying the things . The man was soft and very silent , —softly and silently civil , so that he seemed to be a protection to her against the foul old woman , and that lord of hers , who was so much fouler to her imagination .
then her home life began . A woman can generally take an interest m the little surroundings of her being , feeling that the tables and the chairs , the beds and the linen are her own . Being her own , they are dear to her and will give a constancy of employment which a man cannot understand . She tried her hand at this , though the things were not her own , —were only his . But he told her so often that they were his that she could not take them to her heart . There was not much there for a woman to love ; but little as there wasshe could have loved it for the man ' s sakehad the man been
, , lovable . The house consisted of three rooms , in the centre of which they lived , sleeping in one . of the others . The third was unfurnished and unoccupied , except by sheepskins , which , as they were taken by the shepherds from the carcases of sheep that had died about the run , were kept there till they could be sent to the market . ' A table or two , with a few chairs ; a bedstead with an old feather bed upon it ; a washing-basin with a broken jug , with four or five large boxes in lieu of presses , made up nearly all the
furniture . An iron pot or two and a frying-pan , with some ill-matched broken crockery , completed the list of domestic goods . How was she to love such as these with such an owner for them ? He had boasted that things were tidier there than she had known them at the diggings . The outside of the house was so , for the three rooms fronting on to the wide prairie-land of the sheep-run had averandah before them , and the place was not ruinous . But there had been
more of comfort in fhe shanty which her father ancl brothers had » udt for their home down in the gold-gully . As to food , to which she was indifferent ,
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Catherine Carmichael; On, Three Years Running.
her , unless it was this dry old man . Tho young man certainly did not want her . Then in her sorrow she allowed herself to be crushed , in spite of the' strength for which she had given herself credit . She was astounded , almost stupefied , so that she had no words with which to assert herself . When she was told that the hard , dry man would find a home for hershe had no reason to ive whit should not be so . When she did
, g y not at first refuse to be taken away across the mountains , she had failed to realize what it all meant . When she reached Warriwa , and the waters in the pathless , unbridged rivers had not closed over her head , —then she realized it . She was the man's wife , and she hated him . She had never kuown before what it was to hate a human being . She had always been helpful , and it is our nature to love those we help . Even the rough men who would lure her father away to drink had been
her friends . " Oh , Dick , " she would Say , to the roughest of the rough , putting her hand prayerfully on the man's sleeve , '' do not ask him to-night ; " and the rough man would go from the shanty for the time . She would have mended his jacket for him willingly , or washed his shirt . Though the world had been very hard to her , she had hated no one . Now , she hated a man "with all the strength of her heart , and he was her husband .
It was good for the man , though whether good for herself or not she could never tell , thathe did not know that he was hated . " Now , old woman ; here yoti'll have a real home , " he said , as he allowed ker to jump out of the buggy in which he had driven her all the way from Christehurch ; " you'll find things tidier than you ever had ' em away at Hokitika . " She jumped down on the yard into which he had driven , with a bandbox in her handand passed into the house by aback door . As she did so a dirt
, . very y old woman , —folder looking , certainly , than any she had ever seen away among the golddiggings , —followed her from the kitchen , which was built apart , a little to the rear of the house . " So you be the new wife , be ye ? " said the old woman . " Yes ; I am Mr . Canniehael ' s wife . Are you the servant ?" "I don't know nothing about servants . I does for ' un , —what he can't do for ' . nnself . You'll be doing for 'un all now , I guess . " Then her husband followed
her in and desired her to come and help to unload the buggy . Anything to be ' done was a relief to her . If she could load and unload the buggy night and day it would be better than anything else she could see in prospect before her . Then there came a Maori in a blanket , to assist in carrying the things . The man was soft and very silent , —softly and silently civil , so that he seemed to be a protection to her against the foul old woman , and that lord of hers , who was so much fouler to her imagination .
then her home life began . A woman can generally take an interest m the little surroundings of her being , feeling that the tables and the chairs , the beds and the linen are her own . Being her own , they are dear to her and will give a constancy of employment which a man cannot understand . She tried her hand at this , though the things were not her own , —were only his . But he told her so often that they were his that she could not take them to her heart . There was not much there for a woman to love ; but little as there wasshe could have loved it for the man ' s sakehad the man been
, , lovable . The house consisted of three rooms , in the centre of which they lived , sleeping in one . of the others . The third was unfurnished and unoccupied , except by sheepskins , which , as they were taken by the shepherds from the carcases of sheep that had died about the run , were kept there till they could be sent to the market . ' A table or two , with a few chairs ; a bedstead with an old feather bed upon it ; a washing-basin with a broken jug , with four or five large boxes in lieu of presses , made up nearly all the
furniture . An iron pot or two and a frying-pan , with some ill-matched broken crockery , completed the list of domestic goods . How was she to love such as these with such an owner for them ? He had boasted that things were tidier there than she had known them at the diggings . The outside of the house was so , for the three rooms fronting on to the wide prairie-land of the sheep-run had averandah before them , and the place was not ruinous . But there had been
more of comfort in fhe shanty which her father ancl brothers had » udt for their home down in the gold-gully . As to food , to which she was indifferent ,