Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1861-11-08
MISCEIL AN Y.
Heroism in Humble Life.
By ANNIE SAWYER DOWNS.
Then ssid my own heart beating,
To the time her proud pulse beat
Life hath yet its regal nal nrss.
True, tender, brave, aud swret.ir

a June sun shone hot and glaring on
low, brown house, that stood very near a
sandy road, in one of the farming districts
of New Hampshire. Not a tree nearer
than the next field. which by way of COM
pliment was called the orchard" but a
few Struggling morning-glories, and one or
two puny astors (known TO the mistress Of
the house as China oysters,") in box
under the window, told that even here, were
some dim, Misunderstood yearnings after
beautiful objects. Near the broad, fiat
,loor-stone, three. yellow-haired, chubby
children were making dirt pies, not one of
them old enough to walk the two miles that
lay between them and the district school
house. Inside the house a sickly, discour-
aged looking woman was trying to coax an
obstinate baby of half year old to go to
sleep. Poor Miss Plummer!" as the
neishbors called her, with no hands but her
own to do chore,--wss it any wonder that
the flies were helping themselves to the re-
mains Of the slovenly breakfast; ; that the
milk things still remained just where her
husband left them before sunrise; thai the
aitcmpt she had made at washing only
amounted TO most confusing litter of tubs
and soiled garments, and that in the midst
of it all, obliged TO sit down by the side OF
the screaming child. she had only heart
enough to darn, disconsolately, the heel of
an old stocking that ought to have gone to
the rags months ago!
Frances Palmer and John her husband,
had been married six years, and everybody
agreed that they g had had hard row TO
hoe" To be sure, his father left him the
old house, the rickety barn behind it, and
one or two acres of rocky, sandy soils but
even this was not paid for, and if it had
been, it wouldn't have been worth much,
for as John said, q There wasn't an acre of
pasturing on IT," and his poor COW had to
pick xp her scanty living most anywhere.
But they married young and fall of hope,
they thought the work of building up
modest fortune would not be too hard for
them. Somehow or other, they did not get
along they had bad seasons the farmers
cut down the wages of their hired men,
and when the children began TO come so
fast the wife grew weak and ailing, and
Johr found out that as the years went by,
they only made out to get poor living
This spring of 1861, had however, looked
a little better for them, for Joha had Sc
cured small farm, two or ttlree miles from
home, to carry on at the halves and he
hoped by autumn to have something in his
poke. wherewith to pay off the mortgage.
But in spite of this good fortune, Frances.
as she sat rocking the cradle, thought her
husband had seemed anxious and silent for
the last few weeks, and her mind always
foreboding. grew troubled with the sense OF
some new grief to befall them. The stock
ing dropped from her fingers, and was
some minutes before she discovered that
her child had at last worried itself into
restless slamber. She got up weariedly,
reluctantly, and attempted TO bring some
orier cut Of tie chaos that reigued around
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