“Well, the reason I don’t help around here is because there isn’t much to do. The work you have is a snap, my girl, and a mighty soft one, too. Why, my mother had nine children and did all her own work and cooked for harvest hands and threshers and used to help the neighbors out if they got in a pinch.”
“Well, my dear husband, I do not doubt but your mother was a very smart woman. She must have been to have raised so promising a son. But women are not all alike, my dear.”
“Now, your work is a sort of paper-flower work compared with what I have to do. It would be a picnic for me to stay in the house, wash dishes, play with the baby and do such things.”
“All right, suppose you have a picnic to-day. I can drive the cultivator just as well as you and you can cook and keep house a great deal better than I; at least you think you can. I’ll hitch up and cultivate the peaches and you can tie one hand behind you and do the work to-day and see how much time you have to throw at the birds. What do you say?”
“Say,” laughed Mr. Telfer as he pushed back from the table. “Why, I say I’m willing, but if you don’t get enough riding in the hot sun—”
“The hot sun,” interrupted his wife, “is no worse than the hot stove I cook over. Will you do it?”
“You bet I’ll do it, but you must tell me what’s to be done so you can’t throw it up to me for ever after that the reason I got through so soon was because I didn’t do half the work.”
“First,” said Mrs. Telfer, “there’s the milk to skim and the calves to feed and the churning to do. Skim the milk on the north shelf in the cellar; the dishes to wash, and don’t forget to scald the churn and the milk things. Then you can iron; the clothes are all dampened down in the basket. You need not iron any but the plain things, I’ll do the others. Pit the cherries I picked last night and make a pie for dinner. And, oh, yes, you will have to kill a chicken and dress it, for you know you said last night you wanted chicken and dumplings for dinner to-day, and now is your chance.
“Stew some prunes for supper to-night, make the bed, sweep and dust and get the vegetables ready for dinner. Oh, I guess you know about what there is to do. I must be off now, for it is nearly 6 o’clock.” And she was gone.