The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1876-01-20
gor nuu,rg Readtrs.
"W0RKED AND WON."
. GRIsELDA! Griseldal"

L
nook as the bare feet sprang forward to
obey the summons.
81 gave you work and doubt if 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"
Griselda slipped in through the door
and stopped on one knee to hold the cry
wet cheeks.
"Julie will learn it best after all l ex-
pect," was running through her mind as
she fastened wheels to the mite of a
coach to make it ego" 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
hoor?'
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, hard ruts that
made trying and rough the path of her
| life.
| Rocking backward and forward on the
| rickety chair, humming snatch of q gay
little tune, the child S chubby arms around
her 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.
"Is 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
N the afternoon! There is no time for
! idleness today Scour the hearth and
polish the knives and bring water from
| the we'll"
| Griselda only laid her hand on her little,
painting heart, and turned, sadly enough
to polish and scour instead Of poring over
| the crooked thumbcd book in the attic
corner.
81 will do them well 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 Griseda was done, and she
tripped softly to the top Of the house
and was soon lost over the crumpled old
| book.
"Griselda! Griscldam shrilly echoed up
the stairway.
| 81 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
stairs: Il will manage it somehow, line
at time"
"Idlc, idle, worthless child! bring fag-
OTIS and mend the fire; take up the ashes.
The hearth secured and the ashes un-
touched! and have you busted tO-day?"
| Griselda ran for the fagots and mended
the fire, anJ swept the ashes bare and
clean and peepcd 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 duster in the middle of the floor she
| thought: Il 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 scOlded, and
the child slept and woke and slept again,
and Griselda studied a 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.
81 am tired" she said holding her pa
per doll at arms length over her head.
care you ready for the examination
land the prize:'
"No, Merton Stevens, you know am
not"
| - How should know Z!
"You know just well enough | have
not begun yet"
Somebody's going to miss it, then"
"No, somebody is not. Clara'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.n
MAYBE the odd girl will get it."
"Merton Stevens! please talk of some
thing you know better about. She learns
know, but do you really think Mis-
Douglass would give bit of a prize to ;
barefooted girl?"
Is the prize to be for fine clothes?'
Julie, too indignant to answer, opened
book with an injured manner, and
Merton had not been making kite will
wonderful bobs, and the paper doll hat
: not been so tempting, and if she had no
been so sure of Miss Douglass goodwill
so sure of the prize-she might hav
made headway much faster and better.
But the day came when parents an'
children gathered at the school-hsuse ant
fond mothers looked tenderly on their lit
tie girls as the questions went around ant
the lessons were heard. Griselda, as sh
stood in her brown frock among the ga
dresses around, and with downcast eye
and trembling lips said her part well
thought how pleasant it would be to hay
some one to care" Perfect in her ar
, swers, perfect in the musical rhyme owe
which she had studied in the snatches O
, time-little Griselda trembled as sh
!, stepped aside from her class and courte
! sled her thanks for the beautiful prize.
, ~ shall hate her," whispered Julie
"that dreadful Griselda!"
"No, no." whispered a tiny girl at he
7 side, edo not hate her-poor Griselda
= we must be glad for her-dont you Sc
that although she has the prize there is n
, one to cares'
And Griselda heard Merton say: " Ye'
! little girl, she has something better; don
q YOU know-shc has dco1ked and ooon.
O And when that night she felt the teal
coming to her eyes as she slipped he
1 prize under her straw pillow and wa
f falling asleep to dream dreams, the word
: were sweet to her as they tripped throug
= her mind" She has something betteI
}, she has worked and ."-Church,na1
Boys, What Do You Call Your Father
~ ..ru. old man won't let me 90.