The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1874-02-05

dEuSsC
"Yes, dears; 1 was over talking to
Jacob yesterday, and he's quite delighted
that We should have thought Of making
the experiment. He is sure. he says,
that it will be a success. Only think,
girls, how nice it would be if we could
help the old father now, after all Of the
trouble he has had with US. And what
q triumph, too, if we could prove to him
that girls are a blessing at least if not
exactly that, still worth being born,
What say your Will you put your
names to the contract? Come, now, don't
be cowardly. not try to find excuses for
duty. Jacob never had five
more able bodied people than we are"
"But what will the world say9 And
then dear Lucy, you have had an offer,
you know. Will Frank Lawler be
satisfied that his future wife should eu-
gage in an unladylike occupation p
IF he is dissatisfied that a woman
should do what she may do well, I'm very
glad to have an opportunity of lernipg it
before I'm Mrs. Frank Lawler, instead of
Lucy Brown. If have girls, you may
rest assured that they shall be self sup
porting, quite Independent of ontside help
towards gaining a livelihood. lf they
have talent for music above the ordinary
possession. they may become teachers.
If not, they will not spend four hours
day iu useless beating of their white,
helpless fingers against some ill used
piano keys. IF they are greatly gifted
with superior intelligence, they may go
into the professions if not, they will
leran trades-I don't mean milliners and
dressmakers, and so on-but nice little
light trades, like watch making and engrav
ing and drafting, and, indeed, heavier
ones, if they have the muscle. We all
have muscle. There is no excuse that
we should remain idle. The would is
full of work, and 1 can't understand why
any honest calling should be unwomanly.
Come, girls, let US 60 and sign the con
tract which binds US to work on old
Jacobs farm"
Dear me, Solomon" said the wife
Lucy in the evening, ''you could not
gness what those girls have done"
Perhaps purchased each new silk"
growled Solomon, without lifting his eyes
from his paper.
mo, iuded not," cried the wife in
disuantly. They've rented Jacob Sloan's
farm-eishty acres, and twenty of it in
fruit"
"Whatw cried Solomon, the paper
falling helplessly at his feet "You don't
surely mean our girls-not Matilda, and
Josephine, and Sarah, and Flora, and
Lucy?"
II mean no one else's girls, surely"
the wife replied, little Grossly. "They
take possession in the mornng. Jacob
Sloan is to find everything, and they are
to have one half"
"I'll just tell you, Lucy, what it is.
This is the most consummate piece of
hunbug I ever heard of. 1t will be
dead failure, and they'll make themselves
the laughing stock Of the whole neighbor
hood. Farming, indeed !! Why, 'Tilda is
that afraid of her hands that she never
sweeps, even, without gloves; and Flora
wraps her head in towel to dust I've
seen Josephine do the breakfast things
with the dish rag cliugug to fork. and
Sarah wraps her fingers with bit of
cloth, each one separately, if she has
vegetables to prepare. Brave farmers
they will make !" And Solomon Brown
went back to his paper with scoruiul
chuckle.
Solomon, too, wa. some of fOgy
Women were women, and women they
must remain to the end of the chapter.
A great pity, be bad often said that it
was so, but nature could BOT be tortured
out of her old, we'll worn channels by
education. Eve, he considered as having
been a vicious sort of little body, bend
ing poor Adams nose down close to the
grindstone, and there her daughters had
relcntlessly held it, through all of the
long years since that first tragedy.
Solomon believed in progression. He
thought that the sciences might be bet
ter understood that new discoveries
were to be made that the Atlantic would
be crossed iu bolloon; but Solomon s
radiealism didn't include the coming wo.
man She was to be what she had been
from the beginning So he pooh poohed
at bis daughters farming not believing
that any good thing should come out Of
NazaretD.
1t was an up hill road to those five
dainty daughters of Solomon Brown. But
in one thing they ressmbled their father
They were obstinate, and when they
learned his prediction as to their failure
they we're quite determined not to fail.
They were up early and worked late
Their strawberries were a success. They
gave employment to a number of girls iu
the village in gathering their small fruits
thus recognizing the true policy, that
women must help each other They
kept one hired man, and under his in
structiou these young ladies learned te
turn ready hand to all kinds of farm
labor.
Old Solomon Browns "pooh poohs'
grew less emphatic, and he began tc
speak with sort Of shamefaeed pride Of
sour girls place." Then, when the tame
| of these womeps farming had Travelled