The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1879-12-19
selves on Barbara Warren. Was she
worthy of them?


of jingle and glitter but scarcely tn,
cere, but her nature was not deeI
enough to comprehend another which
needed more sounding. She was easily
satisfied with snowy artifcialities; tn,
Pomp and clsp.trsp of the stage woulC
have delighted her more than nature
most beautiful phases With no NOR,
then q common school education she VA
very versatile and parrot like enough tC
have taught correct speech and idea
beyond her surroundings from books
She WAS an orphan and half servant, hal
companion, to Mrs. Hayward who KEEP
the great boarding house on the hill, and
a. the people said, at was q piece Of
good luck that didn't come to every CIR
alone in the world to be taken into such
q good home"
That night as Ezra went int supper
his mother began, 81 shouldn't thinl
Mrs. Hayward would keep Barbars
Warren. A good, steady girl to do the
work is needed there, and she is such &
Ay,a-wsy thing. She seems to feel as il
the ground wasn't quite good enough fol
her TO walk"
"Oh no, mother, you only imagine
that" answered Ezra, little anxionsly.
She does more work than q dozen OF
those Irish girls who hardly know their
right hand from their left. And then
she thinks of 50 many bright things,
trims the parlors up with brakes and
puts little bouquets on the dinner table,
beside the plates! The boarders like is,
and take 10 her wonderfully"
1t was one Of his secret thorns that
his mother cherished prejudice against
Barbara, and perhaps fed it with the
jealousy of small feminine mind, when
she found her son was making the girl
his ideal of womanhood.
Well, what you can see in her to
stand up for, never could understand"
she went on. Gone comfort, she's too
Eighty to take up with steady fellow
like you. If ever you marry, Ezra, do
try to use little common sense, instead
of love, in picking out your wife. You
see what love brought me to-"
Ezra made no answer. His mother
somehow made him feel that she was an
exceedingly badly used individual in
having been decoyed into marriage, and
that he in common with the rest of the
world was to blame Notwithstanding the
important fact of his not having been in
existence at the time.
Mrs. Hardy, by virtue OF a pale, deli
ca e look and nervous manner, had gain
ed the reputation of being of better clay
than the Hardy family into which she
had stepped, and did all she could to
foster the belief. No one spoke of her
than as Poor Mrs. Hardy"
Every one agreed that it was a mercy
when her husband died, killed in saloon
trvil.
Ezra went out into the starlight with
e strange thrill In all his frame and one
thought swelling in his heart tsll he felt
by it. "When he chose q
wife, and the words famed q gigantic
resolution into life. Why should he not
be a man and wipe out the stigma of
and theft that was on him
by Inheritance? Remembered disgrace
could be swept aside, back into the past,
be could fight down his demons of bitter.
ness and pride and become pure enough
TO mate with a woman. Then, when
he had home ready to offer her, perhaps
Barbara would come and let him spend
his life in making her happy. He saw
the cost at which he was too buy
mis- happiness and, weighing it coolly,
accepted it. He knew well the old
defiance would come back, the absolute
encouragement and loss of heart that
made him desperate, but the mood was
on him when the divine In US overmasters
the human and makes man scorn the
impossible. A new vigor of hope sprang
up within him the next morning when
he awoke and remembered the compact
ne had made with his better self.
Others noticed the change before long,
and wondered if Ezra Hardy would
really make something after all.
How he worked that SUMMER To be
sure he was only q day laborer on the
larger farms about, but with hands as
well as heart animated by a new resolve
every stroke told, and with desire that
was almost pathetic to become q gentle
man, II it we're not too late, he read books
from the library far into the night and
guarded his hitherto careless spec h with
q painstaking severity. His reading was
not always Of the best selection. Some.
times he waded thro' an abstruse scien
tifc work with logged perseverance, and
at the end half uespaired at his own
stupidity in not understanding it, not
knowing he lacked only the necessary
elementary steps which led up to it.
Still, taking it altogether, the effort
made up in mental discipline for what
it failed in otherwise. For months he
lived in a state of feyerish effort. A
little money, q good name and education
and then, he told himself exultantly, he
should be ready to live. His mother
looked on in a kind of wonder. He
never told her his plans, she would not
have understood II he had. Still she
could appreciate practical improvement,
and was little gentler and less fretful
when the garden was free from weeds
and the roof had new coat of shingles.
Barbara Auttered in and out sometimes
twice a week on errands fer Mrs. hey.
ward, and tho she laughed and joked
with Ezra she never, by chance, alluded
again to her ambitious plans, and his
heart grew light as he felt she had given
them up and was ready to settle down
in a home-nest Of her own, He made
the mistake of thinking q general law
must be without exception and that the
fact of her being q woman must make
her q domestic one. As well expect the
cuckoo and sparrow to follow the same
maternal instincts simply because they
are both provided with beak and feath.
ers-
One night at twilight he overlook her
GU her way from the post-ofice with {
pile of letters for the house. She wa
hummiDg softly TO herself q popular
little air, but broke of when abe saw
him, bursting impetuously into tn.
thought that was at the moment on he
mind.
"Esrs, did l tell you about Mis-
Salmi, and how she is teaching me t
singT
"Eo, indeed. Who il shef"
Gone of the summer boarders at tn,
house. One day / thought they had al
gone TO ride and Mrs. Hayward was out
30 took my time to sing, and screamed
until you'd have thought the roof woult
come of. In the very midst of 1t, whel
was trying to give q trill as 1 haG
heard Miss Salmi do it, she appeared II
the door and said-Oh, / never shall for
getl-' Why child you have the voice o
q birdl' Wasn't that lovelyf"
"Yes, and true, too" said Ezra, heart
lily. "And what else2"
"Oh, she offered to give me singin
lessons, only she didn't want anythin
said about it, and 80 now every nigh
after the dishes are done, go up 70 he
room to practice. And I'm 10 happy
81 am glad of 1t. Perhaps the worl
is growing little brighter for US all"
As they separated at the gate sh
| glanced mt him with n sudden imnuls