The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1879-04-10
Girls in Earnest.


Dear young girls, if you feel tired and |
discouraged, aud your aunts consider
you morbid it may brighten you
little to bear the true story Of couple |
of maidens who fought against fate,
more than twenty-five years ago, In the 1
wilds Of Maine.
The Wellman family, consisting Of & .
widow and six children, lived "off on
cross-rOad,n half a mile from the high /
way, and people in the quaint little vii |
lRge under the bill pitied them because |
their house "lOOked so louesome.n Il I
was a low-roofed, unpainted cottage, l
with a smart bush Of southern wood |
each side Of the dOor-stone, and we'll
sweep a few rods to the right. Not at
all charming place, except for the
grand mOuntain-view at the back door,
which Marcia and Jane drank in as
they stood there feeding the chickens.
These girls walked more than a mile,
over billy, rocky road, TO a very
common school, where at best they
only had five months instruction in
the year; so what could they be think
ing of TO try TO "get an education ?'
Why, any body could see it WAS a sheer
impossibility
But here let me tell you that Marcia
Wellmau didn't mind such trifles as i'm
possibilities! Not she You couldn't
daunt her brave spirit any more than
you can Kill out Canada thistle. The
winter she was sixteen and Jane four
teen they had mastered the common
arithmetics, and were beginning algebra
and Latin. Miss Gordon, the teacher,
kindly heard their lessons after school;
for, as she wrote her friends in New
York, they were wonderful! girls, and
she felt il an honor to help them"
To January of that year great storm
set in, the wind and snow following one
another like two stump orators in a
presidential campaign. The sun rose
next Monday morning, and looked for
the little town of Vance, but il was
buried alive under the snow. Not
fence was 10 be seen, or the remotest
trace Of a road.
'No school to-day 81 sighed Jane,
looking out at the earth as it lay in its
white sleep.
mo, but there'll be school to- morrow.
7 can just see Mr.. Diggles, ever so far of.
with any number OF oxen. Oh, what a
cross il is to live on cross-road -
Marcia set her teeth as she spoke,
knowing Mr.. Diggles to be an Unnelgh-
borly man, who would never think Of
letting them out Of their white prison
"N Nobody II remember us, said Jane.
tearfully; "we shall be showed up for a
week 90
"Oh, fier' said Marcia, whose cour-
age always revived when sbe saw her
sister crying "Pll dig my way out,
never fear o.
"Why, Marcia Fuller Wellman! It's
half a mile, and the drifts are as high
as your head. You dig out, indeed %
"Oh, well you'll help,n said Marcia,
confidently; ''and mother'll help"
She was a skillful general; she knew
her men. When Mrs. Wellman and
Jane heard her clear, ringing voice, and
saw her face set like Hannibal crossing
the Alps, there was nothing for il but
to look up the snow-shOvel. With that
aud the barn shovel and a spade, these
three intrepid women undertook to cut
their way through chain Of mountains
TO the village.
"slow and steady - said the mother,
thrusung her spade into the heart Of a
,,Cnt' slash went the spade; that was
sba,..S. a' Ihump, plung, went the barn
shovel; that was Jane An. I'm, IN was
terrible work for young armsl
bg noon the cross-road yras half
c!e9ieu' anu the girls caught their breath
aLu """le'na Ut Mr.. Diggles. down nv
tne corner 'Nouidu't feel ashamed ~
himself" -
But ne was so accustomed 70 feeling
ashamed that he didn't mind N TiI-s
the Levite, he passed by on the o,bas
side, and we will be charitaO.. eno1Sb
to think he didn't see the brav, -
who were trying TO do the work of nxa,.
Before dark il was done, and Nsrci,
hourished her tired arms, exclaiming.
sound the trumpet, beat the drum
Ifemoie, Vance; we come, we come ~
1t was brilliant victory, but the girls
did not know they had made their lives
sublimei they never dreamed that this
thing which was done in a corner was
20 spread far aud wide through the
streets of New York.
Two weeks afterward, as they were
eagerly coming their Latin grammer
IN the kitchen, the stage-driver dropped
a. tneir door an enormous package con-
tanning forty valuable books.
BOOKS Tor them What did 1t mean ?