The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1877-04-13
VOLUME VI.


"But, Edna, loved my husband. I
meant to do my whole duty, and as far
as 1 knew it I call God to witness that
did not shirk it. He wroDged me as no
man can ever be wronged. He took my
earnings and used them to suit himself,
and when plot was laid to destroy me,
he cast me off without my baby, with
out my earnings, without a character,
and left me nothing but starvation or
crime. I thought L could have chosen
the former, Edna. 1t seems easy enough
to starve when you are not hungry and
there is no apparent prospect that you
will ever want for food. But when you
are homeless, hungry, crushed, and
friendless, and some one comes with
kindly sympathy to give you aid and
comfort-whether you would fall if so
situated, judge not till you are thus
tempted"
"Well, Sue," said Edna, pausing in
her labors, with her hands in the pie
crust and flour flying in her hair, az do
not mean to reproach you. Hezekiah
BedOtt made a sage remark when he de-
cided that we are all poor critters. l
begin to feel as though Providence was
leading me through my present trials to
teach me eanimportant lesson. Surely He
can do the same for you as for me if we
only take proper heed lest we continue
10 fall. Do you know how very near
came, in my own idea, to being Halls
wife? 2"
"What ?" said Sue, pausing over the
tub of steaming suds, wherein the
greater part of the not over plethoric
wardrobe of the infantile Smiths was
being cleansed of its daily contact with
the cIayey mud of Idaho Flat.
at is true" said Edna, blushing as
she acknowledged the humiliating fact.
81 knew just as much about men as a
! pig knows about Latin. Our interviews
with men were all taken by stealth, and
our curiosity was always all a1ame
through novel reading and other non
sense"
Then followed a long explanation
with which the reader is already ac-
quainted, and the result was that by the
time the heavy work for the day was
over the two unhappy victims of their
own folly and the imperfections of hu-
man law and custom had decided that
their fortunes should be as one hence
forth.
"You have your children" cried Sue,
''and oh, that had miner
81 only get to keep them through my
constant self-stuItification, though"
was Edna's sad reply.
John came in thoroughly indignant.
His associates in vice had been afflicted
with a spasm of virtue and had been
venting their opinions freely in his
preseuce over Edna's new departure
from their idea of right in the matter of
help in the house, and the protector of
the family was determined to preserve
the respectability of his establishment
at all hazards.
4hGh l1ubd hGuGu llllls Il VI OLCG III
her life her will became law, and the
preparations for the approaching benefit
went on.
"Yonder comes Mr.. Handel with a
letter." said Edna, after the domestic
storm had cleared away and the two
women were left alone With the chill
dren. 'I haven't heard from home in
ages, and do hope its from mother"
The letter was as follows:
"MY DARLING DAUGHTER How your sor
rowing mothers lonely arms are aching fol
you tonight! Your father, Solon Rutherford
is dead. He had been complaining more than
usual for several days, but we did not look fol
his death, and were wholly unprepared for il
II is very hard, my daughter, to part with the
r companion of all my lies weary years. He
never spoke of you after your departure for the
far, far West, yet am sure he thought of yoU
always, and would have been much happie
had you never made the breach between you
} But, my precious daughter, this is no time TO
1 reproaches. Iknow you are paying dearly TO
your thoughtless folly. Your brothers and sis
ters, nephews and nieces, were all here at tn
funeral, but you were missing, darling, and
:
4 are fatherless and penniless.
SIT is very hard TO turn from the clay-colt
corpse of your father to confront the realitie
j of a business upset by administrators and ap
t praisers under a farce called law; but o, Edna
o he had hardly been settled in the tomb befor
d. the house was ransacked from top to bottom 70
the effects which 1 have gathered together witt
infinite labor during the last thirty years. III
t stock and farming implements, the bank aC
count, the farming and timber lands, every
thing, went into account, and it was de
cided that I, as his wife, was entitled to the as
{ of one-third OF all the earnings of our unite
o lifetime, so long as should remain his widow
o was brooding over the humiliation of such
: proviso and wondering that even the darkes
ages had ever harbored such law, when
will was found, giving the homestead to you
d eldest brother, and apportionlng the othe
g property among the other children, leavin
4 me dependent upon your brother during m
natural life, and cutting you off, as well 8
myself, without shilling.
b Doubtless your father thought it was for th
n best. He never imagined that 1 was an ind
vidual, or thought it necessary TO treat me
70 such. He fancied that he had provided for m
WE'LL but oh, it is so hard to be robbed in m
% old days of independence and selfhood. Tru
n have right of dover and might contest IL
!, will, but then the lawyers would get the pro-
erty, and it would bring reproach upon yol
fathers name.