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Mr,. gruickshank Berkshire
plil Town Farm Wife
faner Two
STATE MASSACHUSETTS
NAME OF WORKER WADE VAN DORE
ADDRESS NEW MARLBOROUGH
DATE OF INTERVIEW June 5, 1939
SUBJECT LIVING LORE
NAME OF INFORMANT MRS. CRUICKSHANK
ADDRESS NEW MARLBOROUGH
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Name: yade Van Dore Assignment: New Marlboroug4
Title: hiving Lore Topic: /fro. Cruickaank
Be kshire Hill -Town
Paper Two
Mts. Cruickshank had come to call. Her three mile walk over the
hills presented no deterrent when she decided to call on her young friends.
We were at luch and after some persuasionoMrs. Cruickshank sat down to have
just a "bite" and a glass of milk.
"We're getting nice milk now," I told her.
"Yes, I guess you told me. The mailman brigs it up from his
father's, don't he? I know they II, ve good jersey milk. The baby looks
as if he's thriving on it, too. Well, now, I'm glad you are getting it
you need good milk. But what will you do when we get the new mailman?
Do you s'pose he'll bring it up just the same?
"I don't know. We're to find out this week. The new one goes
on Monday. How did Mr. Grey happen to lose the route do you know?"
"Politics an' pull I guess. When Mr. Smith that's Grey's
father-inflaw retired they gave the route to Gray just till
the new man got appointed. So gray took the Civil Service test
same as the othermen that wanted it. But I hear that the
test didn't have much to do with the appointment. Seems that
this new man is a friend of the postmaster's, and an Irisher,
same as the postmaster, those Irishers do stick together. Then
I heard that no doctor in town would pass him in the physical
examination, so he went to Hartford and got a doctor he knew
to pass him. Altogether it don't look too good. They say he
never held a regular job before for any length of time. And
instead of appointing him for six months like they always do
a new mailman, he's got it for a year. Somebody said maybe
Name: Wao.e Van Dore Assignment: Mrs. Cruickshank
Title: Living Lore Topic: Hill Wife
Paper Two
that's to see how he gets through next winter. I feel real pad
about tha whole thing. Everybody likes Ir. Gray so much, and he
was always so accomoaatin' if you needed medicine or anythin'
from town he'd always bring it. And he always tried tot
through no matter how baa the roads were. Why, last September
after the hurricane, when the bridges were washed out, he rode
as far as he could and then walked up to our plase with some
letters. There's not many would do that."
"Well, if the new man doesn't suit us I guess we'll just
have to complain."
"Don't know as 'twould do much good if he and the postmaster
wereitiends. But everybody is terrible disappointed to lose Mr.
Gray, that I know. Why, with all the bad roads we had last fall
and winter ana this spring, LI... Gray didn't miss more than two
three days. Lots of times the grocer didn't come for two
weeks t a time, and some folks had to ask 1r. Gray to oring out
a fewEpoceries, or they wouldn't have had proper food 'less they
walked to town for it and carried it home."
"peaking of theg'ocer." I said, "I hear that his wife
has left him."
"Yes, she went to kexico and got a divorce, out that don't
mean anything in thassachusetts, I guess. Then She came \back
and went to stay with Frd Brown in the oig house up on Echo
Hill. N000dy was much surprised I guess She really wan't much
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Name: Wade Van Dore Assignment: krs. Cruickshank
Title: Living Lore Topic: Hill Wife
Paper Two
good to oegin with and Brown's no better. But the surprisent
thing is that she called up the store and ordered some groceries
and aeked her husband to deliver 'em. But I guess he swore a t
her and said he'd go to the oad place before he would bring her
groceries up there. he's a real nice young feller too, that
store -keeper. Everybody feels awful sorry for him."
"Have the people in Northfield always been like they are
now? We've never got to know any of them very well."
"Yes, I used to say to Pa that I thought the girls were
awful stuck up, when I was young, out he said I was silly. I
don't know, though. We went to the Baptist church they had
one then and it seemed 's if most of the young people went
to the Congregational. I knew 'em all, so far's that went, but
they never seemed real friendly. Then o'course I married Ben
he was rkin' for Pa and after that it aidn't bother me so
much. i had enough to do at home. ky cousin lives in the
village o'course, but w e don't go back and forth much."
"How long have there been summer peoole in this part of
the country?"
Well, years ago there was lots of 'em in New Larlburough
and there were those two pig estates up in the north part of
town. But long our roaa tne fir6t ones to come were Sheldons.
That wasawut ten, years ago. First few years they stayed only
game: Wade Wade Van Dore Assignment: Mrs. Cruickshank
Title: Living Lore Topic: Hill Wife
Pater Two
summers, out every time they brought up more things, and finally
stayed winters too. We still call 'em summer people, or city people,
but they really live here not. It's funny, but even the ones who have
lived here for years and years still seem like 'cityfolks.' Guess
you have to oe born in the hills to really belong. After the Shel-
dons had been here a while they brought up their friends to look at
our old house, and some other iriends of theirs bought the Hill place."
"Do you like to have them hele, the summer people?"
"Yes, we don't mind. They spend money, and give out a little
work, and that don't hurt none of usl We've got along right well
with them all, too, until the Bells came. Everybody else we've liked
and they've heen nice to us, too. But those Bells1"
"What are they up to now?"
"Oh, nothin', I guess. I was just noticin' when I came
by that the place is beginnin' to look sort of run down. But the
old lady has got a permanent wavel You know she urives around the
country without a drivers' license, and every time she asks the
boy or the girl to ouy her one they tell her they haven't any
money. Then she gets a permanent wavel I tell you, I don't under-
stand those folks."
"I don't either," I replied, as vve rose from the table.
Lrs. Cruickshank insisted upon wiping the dishes. I asked how
long she could stay.
"Well, not too long. I have to be back in time to get supper,"
she said. "But I would like to hear some music on your victrola.
We used to have one, out not like yours. Ours had a round thing,
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Name: Wade Van Dore Assignment: lays. Cruickshank
Title: Livink Lore
Parer Two
Topic: Hill Wife
a long roll, with the record going around."
"A cylinder you mean?" I asked, selecting a record from the
pile on the table. "Did you ever hear a Schumann-heink record?
here's a lullaby."
"No, I never aid, but I'd like to, my, hasn't she a sweet and lovely
voice. It sounds real motherly and friendly like, doesn't it?"
Ye sat silently till the stirring voice ceased, then I said,
"Now I'm going to play a recora made by a friend of ours.
You've heard me speak of him before Robert Frost, the farmer
poet. 6everal recors have been made of his poems. This is his
own voice reading them. You listen andtell me if you don't like
them. This one is called ''Mending Wall.'" I sat where I could
watch her face. The 1Joet's voice came forth, full)resonant, firm
and distinct. At the words "Good fences make good neighbors"
my friend's thin, worn face lighted in a smile .of recognition.
"My father used to say that:" she cried, and then listened
again. When the )ems were ended she spoke again. "Wyh-, that sounds
more like the kind of talking anyuody does, except that it's better
talk," she said. wonderingly. "It's not like the poetry we had to
learn in school. I like this better. It's smiething I know ittle
bit about."
"I'm sure 'Jim over here would be a better neighbor to you if
Name: Wade Van Dore Assignment: kiss. Cruickshank
Title: Living Lore Topic: Hill Wife
Paper Two
he would fence his rows in, wouldn't he?" she went on. "I noticed,
coming through your garden, the holes. Were his cows in here during
the w et weather?"
"Yes, they were. I guess they just turned them loose and let
them go where they liked. noes he always do that?"
"As long as I've known him, and that's thirty -odd years.
Igrs. 6heldon says the's plum discouraged about makin' a garden
this year. Every single summer Jim's powsg et into it."
"What makes him so shiftless, do you suppose? has he always
been like that?"
"Yes, it just seems born in him. Why, he's had some cans
of white paint over there to paint his house for 27 years, and
he's never used it. Twenty-seven years! Just never got around to
the painting. he probably never will, no. he's been to the
hospital with stomach ulcers. No wonder, the way they live on
potatoes and tea."
"What do you suppose will happen to the farmwhen he goes?"
"Why I understand it's been divided in two parts. He only
owns that hoLs and a little parcel of land near the -road here.
he bought that of Pa when he got married the first time, and
ouilt the house so's his wife could live near the road. When
he got married the second time a few years ago his children were
so upset about it that they iae him sign the property over to
As I understand the boy is tog:et the farm two miles up
the hill, and the g in is to get the house down here. I don't
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Name: Wade Van Dore Assignment: lOrs. Cruickshank
Title: Living Lore Topic: Hill Wife
paper Two
know about Ella that's the girl, but I s'pect the Poy will lose
Lis part of the property right quick. All he wants is money to
spend on himself and the car, and he's been arrested once already
for s peeding. They come and .tried to borrow money from me once to
pay his bail, but I wouldn't give it to 'em. I've got no money to
spend such a way."
glow do you account for the boy's being so lazy and mean?"
"ell of course his mother died when he was la baby, and
jim's sister come to keep housH. for them. She was awful mean to
Ella always, but anything that Henry did was all right. She spoiled
and Ella used to come andtell me all her troubles. I felt
right sorry for her, out therewan't much I could do. The older
henry got the worse he was. After the aunt died and Ella kept house
he used to treat her awful, kicking her and hitting her. If his
father said anything?Lenry would threaten to shoot him. I sometimes
thought he'd do it, too. Then of course Ella got married and left,
and then Jim married this half-witted woman. She pothers everybody
to death, but I guess she taken care of Jim all right, and keeps
the house cleaner than it's ever been. But she's always coming
round and wanting something money or food or olu clothes just
like a little child asking for things that you don't want."
"I suppose that's all she is, really,"
"Yes, I feel sorry for her, poor thing, and I guess Henry
makes it hard for her, over then, though i suppose Jim is good
enough to her. But just the same it is a. nuisance to have her
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WaCie Van. Dore Assignment: Ira. Cruickshank
Title: Living Lore Topic: hill Wife
Paper Two
coming around all the time. Lay harkness told me she's been up
there every day for two weeks, coming right before lunch. Then
hiay has to ask her to have some lunch. She's getting mad,_a.bout it.
And the old. lady down at Bells used to de nice to her, b ut she
got to be such a nuisance that they told her to stay away. 4'hy she
would walk in and•pick up the old lady's sewing and say, 'You don't
want this, do you Can't I have it?"
her lite must be pretty bleak over there at Jim's, but I
must say the place is cleaner than it used to oe."
"Yes and. I guess there isn't so much stealing either. At
least on Jim's part I don't know about riarold. But ikay Harkness
told me she hadn't missed. a thing from the mailoox since the
woman has been there. Did I ever tell you about Ben's des?"
"No -o, I can't say you aid."
"Well, we haa a big feed bag full of dry navy a eans and. Ben
left .it settin' on the porch he was goinl to pick 'em over.
Jim come along, I guess, sna saw the bag there with no one around,
and carried it home. Well, we noticed right off that the bad was
gone, but we could see where it went because there had een a
hole in one corner, and as Jim went along down the road beans
were droppins out behinci hib.:n all the way. iviade a regular trail.
Ben followed 'era part way down the road and he could. see where
they was lea.din' to, so he come oack and said to me, 'here's
our chance in get Jim," and he called up the sheriff and got him
to come out. Well, they followed the beans right down to Jim's
Name: Wade Van Dore Assignment: Mrs. Cruickshank
Title: Living Lore Topic: Hill Wife
Paper Two
door and across the kitchen floor (you might know it wouldn't be
swept) and down cellar. There was the sack of beans, big as life.
And they found other stuff too, that'd been stolen from folks
round here for years. Nothin' come of it, though they just gave
the ;stuff back. Another time they took a plow from somebody, and
got wind the sheriff was coming, so they took it over to the pond
and dumped it in. No4 the only thing he ever got takin in for
was draggin' a sick cow in the road behind histruck. ne got
fined fifty dollars for that.
"how did he raise the money?"
"Oh, they clapped anotLer mortgage on the farm. His brother
loans him money on it no one else would. Every time Henrygets
arrested for speeaing they get another mortgage, seems like. I
declare, seems like jails were meant just for boys like that.
he's no earthly use to anyone that I can see. Doesn't work enough
on the farm to earn his salt. Why I hear that he drives the truck
up to the farm those two miles and his father walks both ways,
in all kinds of weather 1"
"It's true," I nodded. "I've seen thew both!" w,rs. Cruickshank
shakes her head,
"Well, I've always said he'd be nothing out a trouble. Course
they're related to us, but sometimes I ,ust can't believe it. Jim
and 3en aren't no more alike than thistles and strawberries. biaybe
Itwan't right for 3en to get the sheriff on to his ownre1ation,
Kame: Wade Van Dore Assignment: krs. Cruicks4aak7
Title: Living Lore Topic: Hill- Wife
Pager TIT
but neither was it right for Jim to take the beans! Jim was mighty
mean about it afterward too. You know that hayfield next to jim's
used to belong to our farm" I nodded assent.
"Well, Jim and henry went in there and drove iron rods into
the ground 'fore the hay was high, and of course when Ben went in
to cut with the mowin' machine, these rods kep' stickin, into it
and breakin' the teeth. 1y, Ben had a dreadful time with those
rods. Jim cut the hay in that field himsetf last year after
Bells bought the place. An' no sooner had he started the machine
when Sine's little dog run under it and got its two hind legs
cut off! Well i guess there was sameracket theni kay harkness
said she heard it the dog yelpin' in terrible agoney, and Jim
yellin' for his gun and cussing Size for not keepin' his dog
to home, and Sine bawling like a baby and Jim's wife yellin' at
him to shut up. Sime's heart was broken, and he carried the dog
all bleeding and howling into the house. But Jim made him bring
it out and he shot it. l'oor Site animals are all he has to
love, and seems if he can 't keep 'em for any length of time at
all. Somethin' always happens to 'em, and sometimes it's deliberate
too, like the time when henry was younger and haa a gun. Sine
had a heifer, a right pretty one too, and she was just about
to freLhen. Well what do yuu suppose henry did but shoot that
neifer in just such fashion that she %watt hurt at all, out the
calf was killed, so that she died, of blood poison, I guess.
Name: Wade Van Dore Assignment: 1eirs. Cruickshank
Title: Living Lore Topic: hill Wife
Pater Two
slow and paifful -coo, and Sime sit -Lin' there beside her the whole
time cryin' his heart out. Course Sime ain't quite bright, but
still and all he ought to be treated better." She paused for a
moment, then went on.
°Le hardly gets enough to eat over there to Jim's, for one
thing. he's got so he picks all kinds of berries to eat in the
summer, even chokecherries, he'll stand for hours-pickin"em
and eatin"em. he's got so he loves 'em. Don't seem to mind
if they are puckery and oitter. Cn the other hand he loves candy,
out only the soft find like chocolate. I tried to give him some
hard candy once at Christmas time out he said he couldn't eat
it oecaue he didn't have any teeth. 'Well, you can suck itli I
told him. 'I ain't no oaoy to go suckin candy,' he said. And he
wouldn't take it. He loves honey too. I think that's what gave
Jim the idear or roubin' harkness's bee tree. harkness's ha a this
tree they were watchini, up in their woods. They knew the bees
were filiin' it up witliToney, an' they were all set to take
it. But one night when it was pitch dark no moon or stars
showin' Jim an' henry went an' chped down the tree an' took
the honey, every drop of it. I guess .laarkness's are still *ad
about it.'
"how did la'. 1-arkness know they took it?"
"Well, that's a funny thing. jimotan't help talkin' big
Name: Wade Van Dore
Tits: Living Lore
Pacer Two
Assignment: New Marlborough
Topic: Cruickshank
kshire Hill -Town
about the things he does. They always leak out. Henry and Ella are
the same way. Henry was seen in the school bus showin' off a pair
of field glasses he took out of Hill's house one winter. And for a
long time they had an oil stove over there that belonged to Masons.
Finally Sime heard 'em talkin' about it and fetched it back to Masons.
Sime isn't quite right, maybe, but he knows enough to be honest anyway."
The afternoon had worn away as we talked, and now my guest
was alarmed to see how late it was. Her men would'soon be home expecting
supper. bo she bade me farewell and I walked to the gate with her, and
stood there a while watching her slight little figure as it hurried
down the hillside road which had known her footsteps for so many years.
I thought of the summer people and the natives among whom this backwoods
farm wife had spent her life. Ignorance, greed, viciousness, narrow
minded snobbery had been close to her all the years in this sequestered
corner of Massachusetts. Through it all, Mrs. Cruickshank went her
way, doing her best for her family, steadfast to habits and rules of
conduct unknown to many of her neighbors.