Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1874-07-03
LITTLE RUTH.

cleS given me In my nelpleSS Ola age, Ieel
the warm love around me. on all sides, and
realize the desolation my own hand reach
ed forth to grasp, but [ was blindto the
future in those days when so nearly
wrecked all its happiness.
This was how it happened. After Mar
tina died-my wife, | mean, with whom
forty happy years of my life had been spent
and all my children were dead OF mar
ried, excepting Ruth, there fell upon me
the heavy mist ortune that has chained me
to this chair, OIL my bed, for fifteen weary
years. [ had t,een a hard working man all
my life-a wheelwright by trade-with
large family to rear, to clothe, to feed, to
educate, and, alb me ! one by one to bury
in the old church-yard, till only Mary,
James and Ruth, our baby, were left to
me- Mary married and went with her
husband to the far West. James took his
small fortune Of a few hard earned dollars
and left us for the golden land of promise,
California, and only little Ruth was left
us. Then the angel of death came for
Martha, and only six months later was
stricken helpless with paralysis
am reconciled now to my hard fate,
and can sit here happily, glad that my eye
sight is still good, my right hand free, and
that [ have learned in my old age to love
books, to enjoy reading and even writing,
as meyer did In the Woodworking daysof
my youth. But in those first months OF
helplessness, when even to toss and turn
in my nervous torture was denied me, my
sufferings were simply horrible. No agony
of pain, no torture Of flesh OF bone,
could equal the dreadful pressure upon my
strong limbs, that held them motionless,
dead, in spite of my efforts to move them
one little inch. ] have tainted with the
frightful efforts avemade just toliftonce
the feet that had carried me miles i'll day
with unwearied ease.
7 But even in that time of rebellious MUIR
nluring, of bitterest repining, there was
some consolation. First, there was the
house and five acres of land. my very own,
free of debt OF mortgage, a, a small sum
in the bank, the interest OF which lifted
us above actual want. Then [ had Ruth.
She was just twenty when he mother
dieGl, and others beside her father bought
her face the prettiest one for miles around.
She had the bluest eyes, like little patches
Of summer sky, and hair that was the col
or of corn silk, and nestled in little baby
curls all over her head-rebelliouS hair,
that would never lie straight under any
1,,1t in1ro to11o Ioct hot
we're full Of sunlight. Her skin was white
as milk, with cheeks like the heart of a
blush rose, and her smile showed the pref
test rows Of pearly teeth ever saw.
She coaxed me from my wicked repin-
ings by coming to me for directions, maxi
ing me feel that my head was still needed
to direct the work, though my feet would
never more carry me over. the door-sill. =
Then she fitted up for me a large back
4 room that overlooked most Of the farm,
\ and had Silas, our head man, lift me up
every morning, and put me in a deep-cusll-
toned chair by the window, where | could
see the barn, the poultry yard, the well
and the fields of waving corn and wheat.
She made me feel myself of Importance by
\ giving me thus the master eye. over my own
4 little domain, and she brought up her own
meals to eat with me in the room where
nv i1ltasnaity held me a prisoner.
You must understand what Ruth was &c
3ane. OF YOU will never understand the SIN
pie story have set myself to telling you
4 She taught me to use ny right hand with
/ II. 1oe4 mt n or
/ the difficulty, tie your left arm down fol
\ one single hour, and try how often 1T VII
unconsciously strain. at the cords. Sht
brought me books from the village library
and opened to my old eyes and BRAIN
field of pleasure never before explored. :
had read my bible and the newspaper ai
NV life: but never knew even the nam'
OF books, now my greatest treasures I'LL
Ruth thought reading would be company
for me. Little Ruth, even she does no
know the world she peopled for me in ne
loving care for my loneliness.
When she was busy about her mouse
work. her baking, her washing and IRON
inc. she left all the doors standing open
that might still hear her CHEEKY voice q
she sang OF talked to me. Then, Wheh al
her work was done, she would put a clea
i, white apron over her black DRESS anu 81
close beside me, stitching buslly on Tn
h ousehold linen, while [ read aloud "ha'
yer had most pleased me in my morllln
Studies. 49,,
She devised little dainty dishes to temp
= me to eat she put saucers OF mowers 9
INV table, that might cheat myset mi
fancying I was outdoors, as Their peTl"a