The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1879-10-02

iouHu tndb INC eleven iauS were euRdSeO
in Bible lesson each Sunday after
noon, not conducted on ordinary plans,
perhaps, but made fascinating with
maps and pictures and the most vivid
description of a land that had been
| practically unknown, the tone of COM
ment changed. No knowing what
Quakers would not do, but certainly
this was an unexpected turn, and
one to be approved by deacons and
ministers and people. Ruth shrunk
from any discussion, but the time came
when discussion was necessary, and she
was forced to define both her work and
her wishes for its future. Deacon Sher-
burne, as the representative of the
most popular church, and who looked
at Aunt Mercy's cap and kerchief as q
symbol of mysterious heresy as full of
threatening now as in old Puritan days,
spent an evening in questions and re-
turned home converted.
You may say what you please" he
said a week laSer to the knot of men in
the store, "about her passin' by her
own sex an going for the boys. Her
own sex can behave themselves better,
and amt making for the streets the
minute teas done. Boys must have
something to take up their minds, an
they've got it; an it's a shame we amt
thought more about it. An there's
more to be done. Her hands ought to
be strengthened. There's things a gal
can't do an select men can, an it's
time for us to talk them over. That
north wing amt nigh big enough for
them that would come. I've been turn
in it over in my mind, an I'm ready
to give the old shoe-shop if any
body'll help pay for the movin'
to the Fork at the head of the
Common, and fixin' it up some. You
see summers comm on, an the way
she figures it is, it s time all of US should
have some benefit out o. what she's be-
ginnin' to get together. She's got a
friend that's sent some picters, and an
other that's goin' to give 800 worth of
books; an the long an short of it is,
here's chance for a town library to
start, an we to hold our heads up as
high as other folks. 1 guess we can
show we amt quite run out yet"
So long speech had never been
heard from the Deacon in all his life
before, and hot discussion followed.
The shoe-shop was too old; it wasn't
worth moving. Who was going to paint
it and put it generally in orderp To
every objection the Deacon had his an
swer. 1t was evident that Ruth's en-
thusiasm had been deep and strong
enough to thoroughly penetrate, and
his Yankee thrift would never allow the
proposed benefactions to 60 begging.
Ruth smiled as, one morning in June,
| the strenuous calls to oxen, and the
creaking and groaning of rollers were
heard. The old shoe-shop was on its
4 -, E.
iuyenation. Before July, painted and
newly plastered, with long tables and
Ruth's arm-chairs, with q set of en-
cravings and one or two good chromos,
the room looked not only habitable but
inviting. A recess at the back was de-
voted to curiosities-an old portrait or
two of former village worthless, some
| Revolutionary relics, and anything
Ruth or her boys had been able to find
in the township in which a common in
terest could be felt
| The Fourth of July saw the village
owners of 1.-The Lowgate Library Hall;''
and as Deacon Sherburne looked at his
once useless property sense of &C
complishment filed him with some
thing more like patriotism than any
thing he had known from his boyhood.
Standing under the great elm which
shadowed it, DIR. Brett, the minister,
made the first Fourth of July address
the village had had in years, and then
led the way to the generous supply of
ice-cream and cake from the great
house. Only the beginning of a better
day for the village, and Ruth's eager
wish travelled fast and far; but she
could wait, sure that here lay work
enough for all, and that if one expert
ment had succeeded another might.
"God giveth the increase" Aunt
Mercy said, "but never till it has first
been written: Paul must plant and
Apollos water '"-Helen Campbell, in
| Christian, Union.