The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1875-11-13
JUST How IT Is.
BY KITTY SOUTH.

/ am feeling ever so cross and crab
bed to-day. The ancient tabby that
was crouching upon the edge of the
piazza, seeking to appropriate all of the
waning sunshine that Old Sol grants
these Indian summer DAYS, and who
was rudely pushed away just now by
Tom, TO make room for his own pre-
cious climbing, is not more thoroughly
at variance with fate. And yet, l am
not ancient, nor am a cat; but have
been iostled away from the very edge of
a qualification which promised me quite
as much satisfaction as tabby's sunshine
afforded her.
All me! can any Euclid solve the
problem of the taxes? Why must they
get higher and higher with each return
of payday, while the people who have
to pay them get poorer and poorer in
the very same proportion? | shall take
this opportunity now while mother has
gone out with her usual sanity pa
thence and meekness) to try and arrange
for the payment of this last Increased
assessment" to tell the whole story of
my wrongs. Mother thinks it unwom-
anly and unchristian for me to talk as |
do, and she constantly reminds me OF
my brave father, whose endurance of
wrong was rs sublime as his death upon
the battlements of Fort Sumter. But
it is all in vain for mother to try and
inculcate the martyr spirit in me- The
lovely plant is not indigenous, and, I'M
luckily, no matter how often she trans
plants healthy shoot, the soil is too
foreign-it is dried up and withered
without delay.
Well, to begin with the beginning,
mother and Tom and l constitute the
family. l was four years old when
father was killed, and Tom came to us
some months after we had laid him be-
side little Allie in the church-yard. OF
course, can not recall much of the
struggling, and planning which mother
had to do in those years Immediately
following the surrender, but few facts
stand boldly out and can not be erased
by succeeding years. remember dis
tinctly seeing her arranging and re-
arranging the bureau which contained
articles of fathers clothing. How ten
derby and tearfully she did this work
There seemed something almost sooth-
ing in arranging those drawers-some
association of happy home-life, and a
lovelight would come into the eyes even |
through the mist But when she would |
open the trunk which contained his
wearing apparel while in the service,
where each article represented hard
ship, separation and death, oh what a
a burst of wild weeping and moaning
ensued! l always dreaded to see her
unlock that trunk
1t was not long before mother had to
part with one after another of these ar
ticles, SO sacred in her eyes, in order to
procure the means of subsistence 1
remember at first it was fearful trial
to do this, and the usual result was one
of her terrible headaches, which is only
another name for an illness. But grad
ually that strength which is born of
suffering in woman of mothers mould
came to her, and she disposed of fathers
clothing, and many, many other things
which were sacred and dear, with won
derful calmness, often resting her hand
on my head, as | stood beside her, and
saying, "Only for you children can lido
this" Once after this only do / remem-
Der seeing her give way entirely to her
feelings, and that was when quite an
enormous price, in our poor, confeder-
ate eyes, was offered for fathers sword,
which was imported and priced as
Damascus blade.
We had very hard winter; both
Tom and | had been i'll with tedious
typhoid attacks. The bills of physi-
clans, apothecary and grocer, beside the
debt incurred for fuel, which was no
small item, from months of constant
fires, were all unpaid. Che price of
fered for the sword was enough to meet
all these expenses, besides leaving a
surplus sufficient to defray our stay for
fortnight at a farmhouse, which the
doctor prescribed for us children. The
sword was given up, the purchase money
lay in her grasp, when suddenly catch
ing up poor, feeble Tom from the sofa,
she wept over him, saying:
ooh! Tom, how could help it? /
wanted to keep it for you, but 1 could
not-no, / could not"
Yes, as far back as | can remember,
mother has practiced selfdenial and the
strictest economy, and, with it all, we
barely get along-simply keep soul and
body together. She has been forced to
deny me instruction in both music and
drawing; and how specially should
delight in cultivating my talent for the
last accomplishment! As to the music,
it is the vocal branch that love most,
and, quite independent of all masters in
the art, l do sing with all my soul
This is something that girl can learn
from the birds and the stars and the
flowers, and all those things of beauty
which serve to call out music. | have
sung in the choir at old Trinity during
the past summer, thanks to my natural
gift, and though no pay accompanied
it, still a constant improvement in my
now, since / have acquired a little no
toriety in this line, Mrs. Beaumont, over
the way, has asked me to join the choral
union. l have attended two of these
meetings, and think that / shall 90
quite regularly this winter; that is, as
long as my brown merino is present.
able
About Toms education, mother has
to bear sore disappointment. The boy
is by no means fair specimen of the
gents. He is very clever in mathe-
matics-the first in his class at the
academy-but his specially is ornithoI-
ogy. His collection of birds would
please Audubon himself; it is really
quite wonderful, considering his limited
resources. To give him advantages for
the perfecting of this bent of mind; to
place him where he could be fitted for
usefulness and distinction in this de-
partment has been the dream with
mother and Tom for six years or more.
But l am beginning to think that this
hope. ike many Others. is but an~iinnis