THE NEW HOUSEKEEPER
Ben Field
AFTER THE DEATH
of old Murf, the farmhand's wife, there
was constant wrangling over a new housekeeper. The boss could
pay only half wages because of the hard times. There was the
big farmhouse to clean and feeding 4 men all year and a dozen
during harvest. The boss, who spent most of his time at his
cider mill, wanted his sister and his niece from Gun Hill to
keep house for a couple of months. But none of the hired men
wanted the loud, barrel-bellied woman. Mule, foreman, was
especially set against women: "Nosing around, driving their
skirt around us, setting the boss against the best hand. This
ain ' t the first farm I worked on." Mule wanted a man cook.
Anyway the Gun Hill woman and her daughter couldn't come
just then.
Mule's younger brother Steve was for hiring Marne Smith,
the daughter of the poor village bell ringer. Mule swore he
wouldn't touch that whore's cooking with a ro-foot pole. Old
Murf agreed. You did have to be on guard with a woman who
had lain with so many fellows that stretched out they could
make a fence clear across the country. You had to have a fine
upstanding girl made out of dew and iron.
A big Canuk woman hired out. Here was one should stick
like a devil's pitchfork. Especially after Steve had brushed
against her, felt her breasts were hard as iron tables. But every·
thing she made tasted of wash. The hired men spent more time
in the backhouse than in the barn. Even the spunky little boss
was laid up, could not tend to his cider mill. Told to go, the
big woman broke down and bawled like a baby.
The truckdriver with applejack for the city combed the em·
ployment agencies. A couple of able girls backed out soon as
they heard they'd be all alone with
4
men. After lots of bar·
gaining, one strapping Irish girl came along. But every Satur·
day afternoon her fellow drove up from the city. Every Sunday
she had to go to church. The men had to eat cold dinners. The
54
