OCR Text |
Show "LOUE IN A COTTAGE" BY EDNA EGAN. " j"lj HE great trouble with middle-fMWl middle-fMWl class Americans," said tho IfiLX young matron, is that we judge each other altogether too much: by our outward show, and we try too hard to live up to a standard stand-ard that somebody else sets for us. Now in tho matter of houses one is judged by the size of one's house. The bigger the house the moro respectable Its owner, even if it breaks his poor wife's back. "Wo had the samo standard in our family. We lived in a great big draughty house in tho home village never could heat it in winter, and wo had moro rooms than we over used but they had to bo kept in order, because be-cause one never knew when company would come or when ono might bo taken sick and the village gossips get a chance to snoop around. "When we moved to the city we always al-ways managed to rent tho biggest house we could And, within our means. Mother thought it necessary to keep up our social statUB. Poor mother she's always been a slavo to a big house. "When Bob and I were-engaged and Bob began talking about building our home, mother got busy right away. I wanted just a llttlo bungalow, but mother and Bob got their heads to-gothor, to-gothor, with the result that we had this mansion on our hands when we came home from our wedding journey. Mamma fussed herself sick getting it In apple-pie order for our home-coming, and tho way she has bragged about this house to everybody sho knows and we know is something awful. aw-ful. Sho likes Bob, but I honestly believe be-lieve It's tho house that she loves. "Well, this place means two maids and a man for the outdoor work. Even then it keeps me busy seeing to things. And somehow Bob and I never have seemed to get closo together here. I did so want a homely home. "Mother thought it was just an eccentricity ec-centricity of mine. But we were so happy in tho little cottage that Bob and 'I have decided to sell tho big house and build a bit of a bungalow on a wide lot, where we can have plenty of outdoors to live in and not so much house to tako caro of. We'll havo a woman come in to do the heavy work and send most of our washing to tho laundry, and we won't have any rooms In that house except tho ones we live in. "Mother says wo will lose all our Boclal prestige and father says people will think Bob has lost his money. But, as I said, we arou't going to care much what people think. It's up to us to provide our own brand of comfort and happiness, and If I want to live ina little house it's my own concern and Bob's. Besides, I want time to be a good mother. I want our child to feci that his homo is a snug and dear place not just a house over which his mother is more concerned than over her baby. Haven't you been in homes where the house is the first consideration? I have. So many people peo-ple aro slaves to things." |