Free Private Life by Jane Smiley

Morgan
    horses from up in Audrain County). A hired man who worked for all the families in the
    neighborhood took care of Aurelius in the mornings and the evenings, and Margaret gave
    him apples during the day. They sometimes took him out for a drive to the farm, where
    Lavinia and Beatrice consulted about Lawrence and the baby, Elliot.

    Robert and Beatrice were thoroughly generous with them--every wagon from the
    farm into town brought them a ham or a sack of potatoes or a peck of apples that they
    didn't need. They had an account at every shop. This abundance became a burden to
    Lavinia--there was only so much apple butter that could be eaten, only so many articles
    of clothing they could wear, only so many shawls they could use to go out to the barn,
    only so many quilts they could pile up. And so they became very charitable: If a quilt had
    the least little fraying or a shawl had fallen into disfavor, they donated it to the church,
    just to unburden the cupboards a bit. They made rugs for the church, ripping up dresses
    that were only two or three years old. Every poor family in town became a judge of their
    pies and jams. If someone fell sick, Lavinia was the first to bring a hot dish to the family,
    or to offer to take a spell of nursing. Lavinia had been industrious for so many years that
    her industry had become redundant.

    Margaret avoided these activities as best she could. She would wake up, read for
    an hour or so, eat a leisurely dinner, take a walk, read another chapter. But even though
    she set this example, still, they baked on Monday, washed on Tuesday, ironed on
    Wednesday, mended on Thursday, scrubbed on Friday, and blacked the stove on
    Saturday. They delivered pies and breads to every social event in town. There wasn't
    enough work for both of them. Maybe she should take up embroidery? Tatting? Crochet?
    Watercolor? Music? Lavinia racked her brain. Poetry? A lady was perfectly capable of
    writing elegant poems containing uplifting sentiments for the local newspaper if she
    wished. Over in Pettis County, there was a married woman who wrote a regular feature-every two weeks--about etiquette, and in Pike County, there was an old woman, much
    older than Lavinia, who published her memories of the early days from time to time.
    Gardening? Margaret helped mulch and bed at the end of the autumn, and started a few
    plants for the spring. By the end of the winter, Lavinia felt she had exhausted her ideas.
    Margaret teased her. She would say, "Ship me to Alaska." (Gold had been discovered in
    Alaska.) "It might take me a year to get there and a year to get back. Ship me to Cuba.
    Ship me to China." Lavinia would say only, "Oh, for goodness' sake." Several times a
    week, she sent Margaret to help Beatrice at the farm.

    Unbeknownst to Lavinia, who would not have approved, Beatrice had taken up
    cardplaying, and was having afternoon parties, not in any way dissimilar to those Mrs.
    Larimer had once had. The first time Margaret was present at one of these, she watched a
    few hands and helped Marcie, Beatrice's new hired girl, serve the cakes and tea. They
    were playing poker.

    She would have expected Beatrice to be a cautious player, as befitted someone
    who was fresh to the game and who also seemed to be preening herself on her matronly
    respectability, but her sister wasn't careful at all--she had been doing more at Mrs.
    Larimer's than playing the piano. She liked to raise the stakes and to bluff, and she smiled
    and laughed in frank enjoyment of the whole thing. After the ladies departed, she
    confided to Margaret in a comfortable way that she was up for the winter, thank
    goodness. She had been afraid, around the first of the year, to tell Robert about her
    gambling debts, but her luck had changed, and she had put some of her stake by. And,
    she said, it was not as though Robert didn't like to play--what do you think he did on
    those quiet days at the newspaper? If he weren't to play, and to play well,