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Children
- University of Wisconsin Press
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CHILDREN [35.171.22.220] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 11:03 GMT) EVEN IF IT HAD been the style to take a wedding trip in those days, I am sure John would have just taken me on that nice long ride in the double-seated buggy back to Tone's farm. As the days wore on, and we did not get back to John's job in Oshkosh, I began to inquire. Then he had to confess that we could not go that summer. Joseph had agreed to build a barn for Ole Leifson, his brother-in-law, and John would have to stay on the home place to help his mother. After a while I found out that there ,was another reason. For all the money that he had earned since he was nineteen years old, he did not have a penny. He had given it all to his mother, who had put it into the farm, and there it was tied up. He had even had to borrow money from Charlie Barstad to get married on. It was pretty disappointing for me as a young bride to see my mother-inlaw put first. John worked from dawn till dusk all that summer, and I never sat down while there was work to do in the house, but we got nothing for it but board and lodging. This went on for a whole year. Tone's ways were so different from ours at home, that I could not be happy with her. She had had to struggle for herself so long that she had forgotten what it was to set a good table. I remember how I amazed her the first time I baked bread, after having made some good homemade hop yeast. Tone just could not make a good loaf of bread, and when I offered to do it, she was glad enough to let me try. Whereas her loaves were about three inches thick, and as heavy as lead, these hop-yeast loaves could hardly be got out of the oven, they rose so high. How my John enjoyed this bread! To the end of his days, he would say, "I would rather have your bread than cake." I baked an average of eight loaves a week for him for fifty-five years. You can figure how many that would be. I loved to bake bread. I want to say here, though, that Tone and I never had a cross word in all our lives, despite all our differences in disposition and ways. At first, she was not pleased with the marriage, but as time went on, she began to warm up. She began to tell me how thankful she was that her hasty John had married a woman with patience. I do not consider this patience entirely good. If I had had a little 159 more spunk at the very first, it would have been better for us both all through life. I never quarrelled with John, either, or anyone that I remember. This love of peace I had inherited from my father. He never had an enemy in this world. Unlike him, however, when I'd had too much, I did give people a piece of my mind; but I didn't quarrel. It wasn't long after our marriage that I found out John's two terrible faults. One was that he was never happy unless he was property poor, and the other was that he had an ungovernable temper . He did not get mad at people so much as at things that went wrong. Then the words he would say would make the air blue, and his eyes would send out flashes like hot darts from under his down-hanging brows. I learned early in our married life that the best way to handle him during these spells was to act as if I never even noticed them. I would go about my work quietly and see that the meals were on time, though I very much doubt if he knew what he was eating. He appreciated my patience, and said so many times after the spells were over. He told our children once in later years that he had learned to throw these fits of temper while driving oxen in his youth. These animals were so stubborn that they sometimes would not obey ordinary commands. You've heard the saying, "stubborn as an ox." Well, it's all too true. Sometimes...