Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1881-10-20
THE DEACON'S DREAMS.

AN%i ~ IOOh DIV eAAO O1Cou3 WOA yOu!
It's done, guess
In minute, MOTHER" and the
young girl bent still lower over the book
she was reading. A footstep sounded
upon the well-beaten yard, and both
mother and daughter started nervous
~, the latter slipping her book hur-
riedly out of sight, and starting toward
the stove.
cts only Willie,'' and Mrs. Hey
worth resumed her patching, with a Ugh
of relief.
The boy who entered threw himself
dejectedly upon the long, high-back
settee, and buried his face for a mo-
ment in his hands, then, starting up, ex-
claimed:
ST might just as well give up first as
last, | suppose"
"oh, Willie, did father say you
couldn't go?'
It was the girl who spoke, and her
face famed red and hot as she turned
to her brother.
"Of course he did! 1 might have
known it, he added, in choked voice !;
ssbut I did think that surely he would
consent when he knew how much I
wanted to go to college, and how hard
had tried to prepare for entering this
fall''
"Did you tell him about it, Williep''
eyes, but he only said needn't say
another word; he had set his foot
down that his boys should be farmers,
and farmers had no need of college; it
only made them lazy and stuck-up-
lazy and stuck-up! AS if wouldn' It
work my fingers to the bone, and study
all night long, if only" and his voice
broke away in sob.
He was sixteen; q great, shy, awk-
ward boy; with a promise of manly
beauty on the smooth face, and broad,
white brow; prophecy of noble man.
hood in the clear eyes, the firmly set
lips, and wel-poised head.
This was his ambition: To 90 to col
lege, to know the many things that stu
dents knew; by day and by night it had
been his one wild hope, sleeping or wax
ing, ever present with him.
ssI do think it's too bad, and father is
just as mean as he can be! I don't
care!" she exclaimed defiantly, turning
determinedly away from her mothers
admonitory 'sMary! Mary! Child!''
81 don't care! If father wanted us all to
hate him he couldn't try harder than he
is doing all the time to bring it about
There isn't day that he doesn't set his
foot down., as he says, to something we
all hate and protest against. You know
az well as do that if it hadn't been for
some things, 'Lis'b would never have
left home, and if he don't mind, there'll
be one or two others missing one OF
these mornings"
And having sssaid her say" she turned
her flashing gray eyes, and flushed,
burning face away from them toward
the heated oven, where, after giving the
nicely-baked bread a vigorous thump
and shake, she deposited it again, in
stead of upon the table, as she should
have done.
"Well, grieving won't do my work, y
said the boy, with a pitiful attempt at
cheerfulness. .I'l just have to quit
thinking about it, that is all!'' And he
walked slowly away from the house, and
off over the meadow lot with sad,
hopeless air, that made the mothers
heart ache. A winter look came over
the patient, care-worn face, and the
lines about her mouth settled into tense
rigidity as Mrs. Heyworth's eyes fol-
lowed her son. Was it right? Was it
lust that her children's lives should thus
be cramped and narrowed down to the
standard of one little soulP
So well she knew her children's trou-
bles that she could not at heart blame
her daughter for the sudden outburst
that had just occurred-there was too
much truth in the girls rapid words.
Poor willie! How hard he had studied,
every moment that he could snatch from
work, preparing himself for examina-
tion-hoping, although against hope, to
enter college. How proudly he had ex-
claimed, dashing down the books glee.
fully:
.sThere, mother! there's not an ex.
ample in this can not solve, or prop.
osition I can not state. and as far as
these fellows rapidly running over
other text books, $ there's not ques.
ton here I can not answer, from lid tc
lid; and now, mother, don't you think
perhaps father will let me gop''