Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1876-01-20
gor puurg Rsadtrs.
"WORKED AND WON"
" GRISELDAi Griseldar

gave you work and L doubt II you
have touched it yetr'
& 1t is done, mother"
Done? Then why have you not been
back again? 1t is for me to bake, and
brew, and mind the child, while you take
rest" s.,
Griselda slipped in through the door
and stopped on one knee to hold the cry
ing "child" to her breast and to kiss his
wet cheeks.
Julie will learn it best after all, | ex-
pect," was running through her mind as
she fastened wheels TO the mite of
coach to make it " go and played Eek
press" until the child rolled over and
over, humping his head in his unguarded
delight
Where are your thoughts wool gath
ering now, that the child must batter the
floOr?"
She lifted him, laughter and tears chas-
ing each other over his face; and tried to
forget that Julie and the rest were proba-
bly, at that moment tugging away at the
task which was set for the prize, and
tried to forget the little, hare ruts that
made trying and rough the path of her
life.
Rocking backward and forward on the
rickety chair, humming a snatch of gay
little tune, the child's chubby arms around
Rer neck, she found him after while
quite asleep, and after seeing him snugly
tucked in his cradle-bed she. skipped
along the passage, the first lines of the
prize-task upon her lips and hope coming
up in her heart that maybe after all she
might win.
lis it sleep you want that you go to the
attic?''
The eyes fell and the feet stood still be-
fore the glance of the mother, with her
brisk air and her keen eye.
+" School in the mornings and idleness
III the afternoon! There is no time for
idleness to-day. Scour the hearth and
polish the knives and bring water from
the we'll"
Griselda only laid her hand or her little,
painting heart, and turned, sadly enough,
to- polish and scour instead of porting over
the crooked thumbed book in the attic
conner.
Il will do them we'll and quickly" she
thought to herself. "There is some
thing left of the sunlight yet" And her
fingers polished and polished and secured,
and the pump handle briskly flew up and
down SO Griselda was done, and she
tripped softly to the top of the house
and was soon lost over the crumqled old
book.
'1Griselda! GriseldaP' shri1ly echoed up
the stairway.
never, never can do it! Nobody
cares if [ lose or win; oh, it is sad when
nobody cares" This she half said half
thought to herself, as she ran down the
at a time.''
"Idle, idle, worthless child. bring fag-
OTIS and mend the fire; take up the ashes.
The hearth secured and the ashes I'M
touched and have you busted to day."
Griselda ran for the fagOts> and mended
the fire, an1 swept the ashes bare and
clean, and peeped in each corner to find
the dust, line after line in the musical
rhyme passing through her mind like the
notes of song. And as she. stood with
her buster in the middle of the. floor she
Thought: :" I will work and study and
win; the words are beautiful. enough to
learn without prize"
So all that day and the next and the
next the mother fretted and seolded, and
the child slept and woke and slept again,
and Griselda studied line at time in
the odd minutes one by one.
In another house, block away, Julie
Stevens rocked backward and forward in
her pretty damask chair.
q am tired,' she said, holding her pa
per doll at arms length ever her head.
Are you ready for the examination
and the prize?"
"No, Merton Stevens, yoa know 1 am
not" ...
How should I know 50
"You know just well enough l have
not begun yet"
Somebody's going to miss it, then"
"No, somebody is not Uara's away
and Meta Is sick, and there's nobody else
in the class that does much but that odd
| looking girl with mean Clothes
maybe the odd girl will get it."
" Merton Stevenst please talk Of some
| thing you know better about. She Ie0rus,
I know, but do you really think Miss
Douglass would give bit of prize to a
| barefooted girle''
| Is the prize TO be for fine clothes ~
| Julie, too indignant to answer, opened
a book with an injured manner, and if
| Merton had not been making kite with
wonderful hobs, and the paper doll had
not been so tempting, and if she had not
been so sure of Miss Douglass goodwill
so sure Of the prize-she might have
made Roadway much faster and better.
But the day came when parents and
children gathered at the sch ool-h and
fond mothers looked tenderly on their lit
tie girls as the questions went around and
the lessons were heard. Griselda, as she
| stood in her brown frock among the gay