The Hickman courier., 1881-03-25
LITTLE RUTH.
AN OLD MANS STORY

know / was a selfish old idiot, now,
when look around me and see the mer-
cies given me III my helpless oldage, feel
the warm love around me on all sides,
and realize the desolation my own hand
reached forth to grasp; but 1 was blind
to the fnture in those days when 1 SC
nearly wrecked all its happiness.
This was how it happened: After Mar.
tina died--my wife. 1 mean with whom
forty happy years of my life were spent
and all my children were dead or mar
ried, excepting Ruth, there fell upon me
the heavy misfortune that has chained
me to this chair, or my bed, for fifteen
weary years. | had been Woodworking
man all my life--a wheelwright by trade
with large family to rear, to clothe,
to feed, to educate. and, ah me one by
one to bury in the old churchyard, till
only Mary, James and Ruth, our baby,
were left to me. Mary married, and
went with her husband to the far West
James took his small fortune of a few
hard earned dollars, and left us for the
golden land of promise, California, and
only little Ruth was left us. Then the
angel of death came for Martha, and
only six months later was stricken help
less with paralysis.
L am reconciled now to my hard fate.
and can sit here happily, glad that my
eyesight is still good, my right hand free,
and that / have learned in my old age to
love books, to enjoy reading, and even
writing, as | never did in the hard-work-
ing days of my youth. But in those first
months of helplessness, when even to
toss and turn in my nervous torture was
denied me, my sufferings were simply
horrible. No agony of pain, no torture
of flesh or bone, could equal the dread
full pressure upon my strong limbs, that
held them motionless, dead, in spite of
my efforts to move them one little inch.
/ have tainted with the frightful efforts L
have made just TO lift once the feet that
had carried me miles in day with un-
wearied ease.
But even in that time of rebellious
murmuring, of bitterest repining, there
was some consolation. First, there was
the house and five acres of land, my very
own, free of debt or mortgage, and
small sum in the bank, the interest of
which lifted rs above actual want. Then
/ had Ruth.
She was Just twenty when her mother
died, and others beside her father
thought her face the fairest one for miles
around. She had the bluest eyes, like
the little patches of summer sky, and
hair that was the color of corn silk, and
nestled in little baby eurls all over her
head-rebelhous hair, that would never
lie straight under any coaxing, but kinked
MP in tangles that were full of sunlight.
Her skin was white as milk, with cheeks
like the heart of a blush rose, and her
smile showed the prettiest rows of pearly
teeth L ever saw.
She coaxed from me my wicked re-
pinings by coming to me for directions,
making me feel that my head was still
needed to direct the work, though nv
feet would never more carry me over the
door-sill. Then she fitted up for me a
large back room that overlooked most of
the farm, and had Silas, our head man,
lift me up every morning and put me in
q deep-cushioned chair by the window,
where | could see the barn, the poultry
yard, the well. and the fields of waving
corn and wheat. She made me feel my
self of Importance by giving me thus the
mastery over my own little domain; and
she brought up her own meals to eat
with me in the room where my infirmity
held me n prisoner
You must understand what Ruth was
to me, or you viii never understand the
simple story / have set myself to telling
You. She taught me to use my right
hand without my left; and if you want to
appreciate the difficulty, tie your left
arm down for one single hour, and try
how often it will unconsciously strain at
the cords. She brought me books from
the village library, and opened to my
old eyes and brain field of pleasure
never before explored. 1 had read my
Bible and the newspapers all my life,
but L never even knew the names of
books, now my greatest treasures, till
Ruth thought reading would be COM
pany" for me. Little Ruth, even she
does not know the world she peopled for
me IN her loving care for my loneliness
When she was busy about her house
work, her baking, her washing and iron
ing, she left all the doors standing open,
that l might still hear her CHEEKY voice
as she sang or talked to me. Then.
when all her work was done. she would
put a clean white apron over her black
dress, and sit close beside me, stitching
busiiy ON the household linen, while /
read aloud whatever had most pleased
me in my morning studies.
She devised little dainty dishes tn
tempt me to eat; she put saucers of
flowers on my table, that might cheat
myself into fancying was out doors. as
their perfume crept out on the air; she
assured me, petted me, loved me, till
even my misfortunes seemed blessings
drawing us nearer together.
And when she was all the world to me.
all that saved me from misery, John
Hayes asked me to give him Ruth for his
wife. L could have struck him dead