Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1879-11-13
ONLY FIFTEEN.


or Sarah, as she now wished to he called,
because Eat least, she wasn't a baby"
mo, sig, you're neither a little girl nor
a woman; but just between hay and
grass, as one may say" 90
.Sarah gave an extra push to her al
ready we'll tied black muslin overskirt,
and started for school with smolderine
spark in her eye.
tIt's true, what father says" she solilo-
qulzed as she walked along. "I'm too old
to wear my dresses short, and too young
to wear them long; too old 70 let my hair
go loose and comfortable, and too young
for fr,zzes, pufs and coils. And as the
COWS IN the spring, when the hay is gore
ard the grass not we'll grown, have to
put up with odds ana ends, so l have to
take all Hats and Jen's cast-oft dresses
and hats; or if there is anything awfully
unbecomlng to them, I get that, whether
| like itor not. Then, in the work, what
| have is just what everybody else hates
to do, like washing dishes and cleaning
the lamps-just what nobody gets credit
for, either, only blame for not doing
WELL"
BY this time this ambitious girl of ours
had reached the school house; but the
teacher had an engagement, so the card
attached to the door handle told the
scholars. Sarah started at once to retrace
her steps; for it was two.mile walk,
with only here and there q few
old apple trees to shield her from the
suns glare.
AS she walked her thoughts reverted to
the mornings conversation, partly, per-
|'haps, because the scent Of the new-mown
hay greeted her. Like any girl of her
age it struck her as a queer backward
sort of comparison to speak Of childhood
as the time OF hay.
''Oh. yes!' she exclaimed, aloud as a
thought struck her; 81 see how it g." and
she at once resolved to write the coming
weeks composition on that very subject.
"l'll say" she soliloquized, >'that child
hood is cared for by the general love of ia
Their and mother. That's the hay, you
sec!m But, at last, the youth goes out in
to the world and gathers love for himself.
And I shall give it moral turn: for
somehow, I think young people ought
not to be selfish, even If I am so-but
| ought to gather love hv loving.
"What is the use of talking, thought
If really wanted to be useful, I couldn't
Who'd ask me to sit up and watch with
sick people, for instance? couldn't even
keep awake all night. I wish could be
sure I'd be the right sort Of woman, and
then, seems to me, it might be beautiful
to be wrlukled Or gray; for, by that time
one is sure Of ones SELF
Then she suddenly stepped down from
her mount Of moral enthusiasm-a feat,
alas! SO easily accomplished, SO hard to
account for often.
"Before get to be good and gray d
like some nice times and some nice
things. This muslin overskirt and waist
are pretty enough and, for once, new,
why-What!-
She sprang quickly out of the road in
sudden terror, for she thought a loose
horse was p]unging down the road be-
hind her. She had not scrambled half
way up the steep bank before he came in
sight, but 10 ler relief he wes lot rider
less. Squire Waits bow reined him in
with difficulty, just within view, and
turning IN his saddle, shouted at the top
Of his voice, evidently to some one in a
nelghboring field:
If Doctor AinsIie amt to home,
what'll I do!''
Sarah could not hear the reply; but the
boy appeared satisfied, for he quickly set
tied himself in the saddle, applied the
whip to the horse, and was out of sight
in an instant.
| Sarah hurried up the bank and looked.
over the stone at its top. At no great
distance she saw man lying on the
ground, and three others standing BY
him. In a moment she saw who it was,
ard as she run toward the group she
guessed the truth, which was that Squire
Wait himself had received at the hands
Of one of his laundering worknen a Sc
we're cut IN the leg from a scythe while
moving.
The bright aterial blood was pouring
from the wound, death-like pallor had
ovcrsplead the sufferers face: and his eyes
were already half closed.
Sarah whisked the muslin oversklrt oy-
er her head like a flash.
"Help me tear broad bandage out of
this" she cried.
The. men were dull-looking, plodding
lahorers, but one Of them semcd encour-
aged by her air Of determination, and III
moment from the back Of the skirt a
breadth was torn. Without any words
Sarah tied strong knot in this
breadth. Then she stopped down,
and with one great heart
sinking, one cry OF the flesh against the
spirit, she lifted the rent garment from
the gaping wound to see just where 1t
was; then she pressed the knot just above
the wound with all her strength.
"John," said she, steadily, cite this
bandage under the leg, and one of you
others 60 as quick as you can for a stout,
short stick"
The blood already affected in its flow
by her pressure, oozed more slowly from
the wound. The stick was brought in
trlce, and slipped under the banaage
where John had tied it in hard knot
Now, JOHN said Sarah, calmly,
twist the stick till you tighten the band
age so that the blood shall stop altogeth-
er."
BY the time this was done. moor Mrs
Wait, trembling and terrified, arrived on
the scene with a little, Id-fushioned
pocket bottle of smelling salts, and
cruct OF vinegar wherewith to battle her
husbands head. These res1oratlves an
swercd we'll enough TIL the doctor ar
rived.
"Iou're right sensible girl" said the
doctor, when he heard what Sarah had
done. Any enc of you fellows" con-
tinued he, "could have stopped the
blood, or mostly have stopped 1t, by
pressing the limb above the wound with
your fingers till help could be got"
Next morning, Sarah stopped at the
squire's gate to learn how he was. John
was spreading hay in a field close by,
and he came out to the road to speak to
her
II say" he said, contemplating her
slight torn with genuine admiration,
'such little creetur as you be, to have
been so KNOWN and smart! Why, YOU
can't be morn fourteen or fifteen at the |
"Only fifteen, answered Sarah, with |
queer smile Just between hay and
grass"
II never did see the beat!" responded |
John. GLOW did you know so well what |
to dew2 that's what I'd like to knowl"
ooh! l learned it at school, answered |
Sarah, with little ar of patronage and |
humility combined. ''You see, John, the
blood that comes straight from the heart
q rrtof md 3D. IL