Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1859-05-13
DON'T GET DISCOURAGED.
BY MRS. F. d. G. GE.

ell, S1lu SWEEP OdAlio hih'oi'' ~
stood BY her husbands side one bright !!
moonlig ht summer evening. 81 know
the season has been hard, and we have
had trial upon trial; but we have had
MANY blessings, too" Il
Fl should like to know what you call
blessings" said the moody husband,
his head upon his hand, and his chair
tilted back against tho log cabin.
.Here we have been toiling and toll
ing for the past year half, on
this bleak, miserable prairie, not hill
in sight, and the wind sweeping us ten
months in the year like tornadocs.
Last year 1 must have the ague, 50 that
I could not tend to my corn, and the
drought spoiled my wheat.''
ooh, well, George, these things may
never happen again" q v q " q Il
81 know, that's the way you reason.
So you said last year, that luck would
change, and kept saying, Don't get
discouraged If it hadn't been for
you, I'd have quit last all, and gone
back to old Oneida" <t
"And what would you have done
there, George
"Done darn'd sight better than
I'll ever do here, in this heathcn coun-
try!" was the pettish and almost pro-
fame reply of the young farmer, who
had sought home for himself and wife
on the prairies Of Illinois, IN the year
1S-.
Carrie was hurt. A tear sprang to
her eye and quicker throb to her
heart, but she knew his mood might
change, and knew, too that were she
to speak, one responding word, he would
give up utterly, and insist upon re-
turning again to, the haunts of his
childhood, where his situation would
only be that of common laborer.
She checked the rising emotion, and
again answered with a tone of cheerful
encouragement and mild reproof:
"Oh, don't speak so, George. l
know,4e have not beensyerysuccessful;
but then. We aresetting ina new coun-
try, and beginning new life. We
must struggle on and not give up.
After a few years, our locust trees will
break the wind, and the loss Of one
planting Of corn or wheat, 4 hope, will
not PROSTATE us as it does now"
"But how am / ever to get where l
can help myself? Corn spoiled,
wheat blighted, and the COW lost on the
prairies the wolves have killed my
sheep, and now my best COW must die !!
You talk Of blessings, but I don't, and
I am determined to sell out to the first
white-man that will take it, and then
quit the country" .,,ay
''Is this not a blessing?" she ask
ed, laying a growing baby, the very
image of his father, into his arms.
: The father smiled family; his heart
was really sad. The hardships, trials,
and deprivations Of new country were
more than he could bear, but with his
faint smile came low acknowledge
ment:
eyes, Carrie, Dick is q blessing -
"And is not Carrie a blessing 20
she added, as she left warm kiss of
affection upon his brow.
"Aye, and Carrie is a blessing,''
was his response, in lightened tone.
"And is not good health blessing?'
eyes, 1 suppose so," said he, al
most laughing.
"And is not this soft, cooi air, this
mellow moonlight, and the star-span-
gled heavens, blessing?"
."Of course" ID 4 I'D .
"See our beautiful garden-hoN
softly it sleeps in the moonlight. Did
you not tell me the other day, that you
never saw such beets and cabbage, such
onions and squashes :? and shall we not
have potatoes for ourselves and neigh
bors, if we should be so blessed as to
have any ?" 12-- - GHEIa 19,
"Why, Carrie" said he, taking the
soft hand in his that was putting back
the hair smoothingly from his forehead,
"one would think we had nothing but
blessings, to hear you tell the story.''
"And l am not done yet I think I
have blessed little home here in this
clean, sweet, pleasant cabin, and the
blessedest, good, kind husband in this
pleasant world, if he would not get the
blues, and threaten to leave this beau
.tiful land and 60 back to New York
every time the wind blows the wrong
way. Aye, George, 'dont get discour-
aged > all will yet 60 well, and we
shall yet bless the day that We stuck
our stakes On the prairies. - ..-.,.
"Well, suppose I shall have to stay
whether it is best or not, you are de-
termined to be blessed by everything
but women folks don't have to suffer
everything as men do"
Carrie smiled to herself, as she took
her babe again upon her breast, and
remembered the hours of toll and trial
through which she had passed; Of the
nights Of wearisome watching and care,
of the days of ceaseless exertion, off,
en- when barrel y able to endure fatigue.
But she did not feel to murmur. There
was to her Joy in duty, in being true
and earnest, in working out ones des-
tiny, that made all the hours and days
worth living for, though there we're
here and there, as she looked over the
past, dark shadows fitting to and fro
like the eloud-shadows over the billowy
prairie, while the sun gilded all the
rest with brightness. H.0t.
Long and earnestly they sat chatting
at their cabin door, and her gentle
words and kind encouragement lifted
,,,. b;c hoo~+ ond bo ,ooS - IL