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(Melie)
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In the, Hot-Lands
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By HESTER AMES
IT was "wash day" at the Burton Ranch but there was no hired woman to do the work. If the servant girl problem is difficult of solution in large cities it is doubly difficult out on a ranch in Southern Texas. A maiden will work on a ranch for love — if the man she is in love with is on the premises — or she will work for money if the wages paid aggregate half the value of the property, but under ordinary circumstances the hired menial is conspicuous by her absence. There was none at the Burton ranch on the morning in question. That ranch had not been paying well of late and there was need to curtail expenses. Even half the value of the place at that time would have been insufficient to tempt a girl, qualified for "general housework/' to leave the charms of the city moving-picture shows and do dishwashing and laundry work out in the hot-lands.
So Mrs. Burton was doing the work for love. Not that she had been trained for domestic service but because her husband, whose ill health and misfortune had caused him to lose in various investments, was growing doub ly discouraged at seeing the ranch failing for want of funds to conduct it properly. He had gone away, now, for a fortnight to try to negotiate a loan or a sale of land, and his wife had assured him that no extra expense would be incurred during his absence.
The little adobe house seemed insufferably hot that morning. The very air was scorching and Mrs. Burton sighed more than once for the cool, delightful shade of the far Eastern home of her girlhood. It had been a hard struggle to settle down to the
daily drudgery of household cares, especially when hundreds of miles away from all those whose friendship had made life sweet in the past and at least twenty miles distant from the nearest town. But Mrs. Burton had married for love; she lived for love, and now she worked for love; yet the burden seemed light, tho the frail form was bent 'neath the load, and the strength of the worker was far overtaxed.
"Why don't you make Edith help you more?" John Burton was wont to ask when he saw his wife tired and pale, and his robust daughter of sixteen looking the picture of health.
"I would rather do the work myself," Mrs. Burton would answer, "than worry along with her. Her fretfulness and complaining get on my nerves and weary me so, it is easier to do the
EDIT II at Tin; WELL
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