Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1879-09-10
The Deacon's Dreams.


CHAPTER I.
"Mary, look at the bread, wont you ?
It's most done, guess"
In minute, mother" and the young
girl bent still lower over the book she was
reading. A footstep sounded on the we'll
beaten yard and both mother and daughter
started nervously, the latter slipping her
book hurriedly out of sight, and starting
toward the stove.
"Tt's only Willie," and Mrs. Heyworth
resumed her patching with sigh of relief.
The boy who entered threw himself de-
jectedly upon the long, higb-backed settee,
and buried his face for moment in his
hands, then, starting up, exclaimed al
might just as well give up first as last,
suppose"
"Oh, Willie, did father say you couldn't
go ?" 1t was the girl who spoke, and her
face famed red and hot as she turned to her
brother.
"Of course he did might have known
it," he added in choked voice "but did
think that surely he would consent when
he knew how much | wanted to go TO col
lege, and how hard had tried to prepare
for entering this fall"
"Did you tell him all about it, Willie 2"
ayes, but he only said l needn't say
another word he had set his foot down
that his boys should be farmers and farm
ers had no need of college; it only made
them lazy and stuck-up-lazy and stuck-up |
| As if wouldn't work my fingers to the
bone and study all night, il only" and his
voice broke away in a sob.
He was sixteen; great, shy, awkward
boy; with a promise of manly beauty on the
smooth face and broad, white brow; pro-
phecy of noble manhood in the clear eyes,
the firmly-set lips, and well-poised head
| This was his ambition; to go to college; to
know the many many things that students
knew; by day and by night it had been his
one wild hope, sleeping or waking, ever pres
ent with him.
81 do think it's too bad, and father is Just
as mean as he can be | don't care :" she
exclaimed, defiantly, turning determinedly
away from her mothers admonitory " Mary
Mary child" al don't care If father
wanted us all to hate him, he couldn't try
harder than he is doing all the time to bring
it about. There isn't day that he doesn't
set his foot down. as he says, to something
we all hate and protest against. You know
as well as | do, that if it hadn't been for
some things, Lis'beth would never have left
home, and if he don't mind, there'll be one
or two others missing one of these mornings"
<hhN ho'ihS ouiu hCi ody, ohc IuibCd
her flashing gray eyes and flushed, burning
face away from them toward the heated oven,
where, after giving the nicely-baked bread a
vigorous thump and shake, she deposited it
again, instead of upon the table, as she
should have done
"Well, grieving won't do my work." said
the boy, with pitiful attempt at cheerful
ness. "I'll just have to quit thinking about
| it, that's ALL" Aud he walked slowly away
| from the house, and off over the meadow-lot
with a sad, hopeless air, that made the
mothers heart ache. A whittier look came
over the patient care-worn face, and the
lines about her mouth settled into tense
rigidity as Mrs. Heyworth's eyes followed
her son. Was it right Was it just that
her children's lives should thus be cramped
and narrowed down to one little soul ?
Poor Willie How hard he had studied,
every moment that he could snatch from
work, preparing himself for examination
hoping, although against hope, to enter col
| lege. How proudly he mad exclaimed, dash
ing down his books gleefully; "There,
mother there's not an example in this
cannot solve, or proposition cannot state,
and as for these fellows" rapidly running
over other textbooks, "theres not ques-
tion here | cannot answer, from lid to lid,
auu uoW, luOtueI, uOu you tuluh perhaps
father will let me go ?"
Aud then she thought with a shiver, of
the words OF her restless, bigh.spirited
daughter " If he don't mind there will be
one or two others missing one of these morn
ings." Would it end in that at last ? Al
ready one had gone, searching elsewhere for
the freedom to think and act that was denied
at home. Was it right that all the sunshine,
all the happiness should be crushed out OF
their lives? She knew that it was not, and
had not she an equal right to determine
| upon their future with their father?
The sunbeams slowly heightened, creeping
| up and over her feet, her work and her folded
hands, until they flushed upon her with a
sudden blindness.
"Come, Mary, it's most time for supper,
aud fatherll soon be in from the field !" and
she gathered up her work with weary sigh.
"The deacon's kind enough at heart she
thought, half apologetically, "only he's so
set"
For moment she fingered in the doorway,
then, turning away, said, hurriedly: "The
men are coming; you skim the milk, child,
while | cut the bread. Where is the bread p
and she glanced inquiringly from the empty
bread-cloth to her daughter.
"Oh, mother As live, do believe u
She opened the oven door slowly, and with
the air one might bs supposed to wear going
TO his execution. The bread was almost in
blaze, and blacker than any hat you ever
saw, or any crow or Chloe that ever lived.
This was the climax of misfortune burnt
bread was the deacon's particular aversion,
the eating of which was always considered
by him worthy of an indefinitely greater pa
tienoe than the Incompatible Job ever
possessed.
Before this new evil all other troubles
"paled as stars before the sum-" and for a
while Mrs. Heyworth's sorrows we're swal
lowed up by the trembling question, What
will father sayp"
Deacon Heyworth's days work was done
long ago, and he sat, as usual, in his easy
chair, with his feet upon the fender. Hi.
wife sat near him with busy fingers hel
work was not yet done-would neUer be, shs
often thought, wearily, until her hands ano
feet and heart were still in death.
The corner clock struck nine, and the
deacon laid aside his paper; Mrs. Heyworth',
opportunity had come at last, the moment
she had waited for anxiously. Something
must be done. oh, II only could say some
thing to convince him His heart is kline
| anu boou cuoubh, IL onl1 ~ COulu pc got a.
kind O. like green moss and shining she'll
under the water when it's frozen over-eas,
enough to be got at when the ice break
and noats away"
"Fatherp she commenced desperately
"college begins next week |"
"Yes, know !" aud the deacon's yoic,
expressed slight irritation.
"Willie does want to go so bad, pears lik,
it's shame for the boy TO be disappointed.
The deacons face became flint.
"Pve explained to William my reasons
for not letting him 60 to college. told hin
he could not go, and when say a thing
mean II; I've set my foot down"
"Yes yes know, but do wish, Nathan
you wasn't quite so swift at setting YOU
foot down., as you always say it's mighty
aggrayatin', sometimes, for you never pretenc
) 10 ask me what / think of such, or suct
things, and for all I'm 80 quiet like, ant
don't say anything, l feel It nevertheless
! and I've begun to wonder when my time l
come I"
The deacon gasped, and his wife, throw
ing away her last remnant of timidity con
tinued "We've been married now nigl
onto twenty years, Nathan, but can't re
! member the time when ever set my foo
down that such thing should or should no
be done !"