St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1881-05-27
The Silver Horseshoe.
CHAPTER |.

We ll;lu Dttn so sure ulldI lllc ITOtlD-
les that were overwhelming others i'll
the manufacturing world would never
touch us We had been SO sure that
delegates from the unions might prowl
about among our ''hands" and never
gain one single adherent!
Now, when | say "we," | mean John
and /. This sounds ''strOng- minded" :"
you are ready to say. Well, | don't
know what other people may choose to
call it, but in truth | have been very
proud and glad that ever since the day
married the owner of Otway Mills he
has liked me to take an interest in his
work and in his people.
You see have had such an example
in Johns mother; and thcn-well, my
family thought | ought to have done
better than marry Lancashire mill
owner, and they said good many bit
ter things. These things hurt at the
time; though they lost their sting
quickly enough when | got him all to
myself, and he held me close in his
arms, and told me how hard he would
strive to make me happy. Happy |!
well, well, | wonder does there live II
happier woman than Johns wife in all
the length and breadth of England
Yet no life is without its days of trial,
and the story am going to tell you
now is of one of those dark times that
come to us all sooner or later.
| had never seen Mrs. Ralph Otway,
Johns mother, until | came to the
land of smoke and tall chimneys, for
she had not come South to our we'd
ding.
She used to tell me stories of Jacks
boyish days: stories that she never
tired of telling, or | of listening to
and sometimes she spoke of her dead
husband, and of how he had been re-
vered and looked up to by everybody
until at last his name became II sort OF
proverb, and people in the business
world had been heard to speak of hin
us 'honest Ralph Otway." You cOulC
hear IL tremOr in her voice when she
spoke of things like these, and see ;
faint flush, like the pink i'll the innel
side of sca-shcll, rise to her delicate
cheek.
at is great responsibility to have
SO many hands under one head, and Il
be amswcrablc for the welfare of then
all it needs wisdom to rule them well
and to he Just as well as kind" sh'
would say to me, speaking of the grea
mills where the machinery whirre,
and buzzed all day long, and the Glands
came rushing out when the dinner-bel
changed its noisy summons, like bee
swarming from their hive.
He had wanted his mother to liv
with us-and you may he sure | hat
no will apart from his-but she said
"No; married folks are best left t.
, themselves" She had her way bu
we would not let her 90 far from lis
only ''step or two," as John said, :
that we could run across of an evening
and she could come to us without fa
tigue.
: | was very happy during that strang
!. new wear: happier still, during the on
that followed, when held Johns so
i'll my arms, and saw the clear gra
: eyes that had won my girlish heal
look up mt me from my lap.
At first motherhood seemed to III
such II sweet, new, precious joy that
! was ready to he over-anXiOus. | migl
have fallen into the mistake that 5
! many young wives make, and in I'll
= love for baby let the even dearer po,
session of my husbands companion
= ship slip from my hold. Howev'
dearly every man loves his children
does not want to be always hearin
about them least of all when
. comes home tired with the days wOrL
nor yet does he like to see his wi
!; gradually become little better than
u nurse-maid. know all these thini
Z now but in those early days | mig
u have lost the freshness of Johns syI
u pathy for me, and mine for him, if
~ :. had not been for the gentle word
81 season that fell from his mothers lii
:, and made, as it were, scales to f;
from my eyes.
" "Don't let baby keep you from beil
:. the heart of Johns life, child" 5
:: said. "Let no one have the power
=" =" taking that from you.n
Then | remembered how the mig
m =. before | had been chattering aw
II about baby's remarkable feats a
"n marvellous doings, and how weary Jo
~ had looked-nay, how | had caug
" him i'll the loving hiding away ot
- yawn that would not be wholly
- pressed and how wisdom came
~ me as pOndered.
Times were bad ; trouble was arou
y
~. evil counsel was leading honest II
y astray, and wanton hands were sow
iM''S M the seeds of dissatisfaction i'll the Ia,
- of reaping harvests of advantage
" themselves. First one class of ope
I tives went on strike, and then anotl
nu The "hands" at this mill or that
III fused to go on working except un
70 the spur of higher wages, and so
li''' busy whirr-whirr of the machin
"sel " was silent until stranger hands GO
'ne he found to set it To going again.
Darker shadows crept into the
oi' ture after this men, an hour ago |
and hearty, were manned, blint
beaten almost out of life; and I'll
her crimes were done in the dark.
on masters did not escape one was t
Il att cowardly bullet coming f
re- no one knew whittier. grew feal
the and in spite of struggles after coul
or more than once had to turn away
head after Johns goodbye kiss