The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1881-11-04

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Of love; my mother tried that and she
lived q slave' q life. "slnO. i.
ct must go now, must truly" said
Dora, as she felt herself locked in arms
that would not give way. eff / live
without you for seven years / shall be
homely old maid, and you will not
thank me for waiting for YOU"
He put her away then and looked at
her curiously, as il he had never thought
of her prettiness before. u"Do you know
what your name means? ?" he asked,
earnestly. 81 saw it in the paper that
Theodore means Gift of Cod and
you have been just that to me. If / had
never seen you, IshOuld never have had
o. notion above days work and
nights Sleep I will write whenever I
have any luck, and come home on New
Years eve, when do come and if you
wear. this red dress ] shall know you
have waited for me" r.s.,
81 think shah live, to wear it when
you come home. if it is seven times sew
en- years, Joe for women are very hard
to kill, - said Dora, slowly disappearing
from the Kitchen.
"What have you been doing all this
time?" said Prudence, severely.
A" was only giving Joe some good
advice"
"Well, hope he'll profit by it."
$50 do l." said Dora, heartily.
It's as easy to say seven years as one,
and we read OF Jacobs seven years serv-.
ice for Rachel, which seemed but as
one day for the love that he bore her.
Rachel's feelings are not thought worthy
to be mentioned in holy writ; but, if her
love was like Dora's, every day seemed
seven years. And here, in nutshell,
lies the difference between q mans love
and a womans.
Jacob had the sheep to mind, and he
did mind them uncommonly well; Joe
went to seek his fortune in new scenes,
and only thought of Dora when he had
nothing else to do. The poet thought
he had set hard task to men when he
said:
Learn to labor and to watt g
but it is UNNECESSARILY harder to be idle
and wait.
Till her lover went away Dora had
never cared to ask herself whether she
were child or q woman. Sunshine had
been plenty with her, and she had easily
sugared and gilded the plain things that
farm life offered her.
Before the first year came to an end
she felt that she should soon arrive at
patriarchal age if she did not do some
thing to kill the time that died SO hard
on her hands.
"Teach school / guess not" said
her father, when she first preached her
plan to him. "You amt starvin yet I;
and if you want some new furbelows you
just say SO, and not come at it slantin'-
ways like that"
81 don't want anything, father; but
there is so little for me to do at home. I"
Nonsense In my time, gals were
always full of business. Can't you make
sheets and pillow-cases and get ready to
be married? Who knows but some
bodyll ask we one of these days? ?"
I'D rather teach school, father" ugs
"Waal, wal, folks can't always have
their 'drathers in this world. l amt
willin', and that's the end ont"
But this was not the end ont, and
Dora easily obtained school. She de-
veloped governing talent which
charmed the committeeman, and the
congenial labor in the company of little
children took her out of herself and in
fused new life into her hope deferred.
Every week she walked to the post
Office, three miles away, to ask for a
letter, going i'll with a bright flush in
either cheek, and coming out pale and
dull-eyed after the stab of disappoint-
ment. l wonder that people in the
country are so anxious to be Postmas-
tiers: if they only knew it, they are act
ors In more tragedies than any member
of a theatrical stock-company. Much
sealed happiness passes through their
hands but they have to refuse many q
Mariana in the Moated Grange p
weary women who reach hand out of
their dull lives for a letter and draw it
back empty.
1t was far into the second year before
Joe's first letter came. 1t was surely a
fanciful and foolish thing for school
mistress to do, but Dora carried it to
her own little room and put on the red
dress before she read Joe's letter.
Joe was working in the mines in Colo
RADIO. His luck had not yet come, in
nuggets at least, but hard work and
sober living were slowly giving him the
advantage over the other miners. He was
never so well, and he loved her better
than all the world.
| Dora lived ON this letter for many
weeks, and she set "Colorado" for a
copy so often to her scholars that they
will write that word better than any other
to their dying day. u.
Letters came oftener as years drew on;
sometimes Joe was up in the world,
sometimes down once his carefully
boarded gold was stolen from him, and
he had to begin all over again but this
was nothing to a long illness in which a
friend wrote to Dora so soon as Joe was
out of danger. Then Dora envied the
doves their wings.
New Years day was the hardest of all
to bear. She could not help strong
pressure of excitement when she put on
the red dress, which grew more and
more old-fashioned, and watched the
sun go down on the road which Joe must
travel when he should come home. The
next morning she fitted her shoulders
sadly to the burden of another year.
One young farmer after another found
his way te the old farmhouse on Sun
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