The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1881-12-07

lieve," said Dora, "you would not go
away at all, but stay here till YOU could
build little house, and then We would
rough it together"
"No, little Dora, that is not my kind
! OF love; my mother tried that and she
lived slaves life."
81 must so now, / must truly" said
Dora, as she felt herself locked in arms
! that would not give way. "If ! 1.-Two
without you for seven years shall he
homely old maid, and you will not
thank me for waiting for YOU"
1e put her away then and looked at
her curiously, as if he had never thought
of her prettiness before. "Do you know
what your name moans?' he asked,
earnestly, {" saw it in the pnper that
Theodore means Gift of God; and
you have been just that tome. II l had
never seen You, l should never have had
a notion above days work and
nights sleep. | will write whenever
have amy luck, and come home ON New
Years eve, when do como; and il you
wear this red dress shall know you
have waited for me.
81 think shall 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 2" said Prudence, srycrel "
&" was only giving Joe some good
advice"
"WelI, I hope he'll profit by it..
$50 do !, " said Dora, heartily.
'Tis as easy to say seven years as one,
and we read OF jacobs seven years serv-
ice for Rachel, which seemed but as
ono day for the love that lie bore her.
Rachel's feelings are not thought worthy
to be mentioned III holy writ; but, if her
love was like Doras, every day seemed
seven years. And here, III nutshell,
lies the difference between mans love
and 4 womau's.
Jacob had the sheep to mind, and he
did mind them umcommonlv well; Joe
went to seek his fortune in new scenes,
and only thought of Dora wien he had
nothing else to do. The poet thought
he had set hard task to men when he
said:
Learn to labor and to wait;
but il is immeasurably harder to be idle
and wait.
Till her lover went away Dora had
never cared to ask herself whether she
were child crsa 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
81 iclt that she should soon arrive at Il
patriarchal age if she did not do some.
thing to kill the time that died SO hard
on her hands.
"Icach school! ] guess not" said
her father, when she first broached her
plan to hlm. You uint staryin' yet ;
and if You want some new iurhelOws You
Just say So, and not come at 1t slantin'
ways like that
"I don't want anything, father; but
there is so little for me to do mt home. "
"Nonsense In my time, gals were
always full of business. Can't yuu make
sheets and pilow.cascs and get ready to
be married? Who knows but some
bodv'lI ask ye one OF these days?'
"rd rather teach school, father
"Wual, waal, folks can't always have
their 'drathers in this world. | amt
willm', and that's the end ont"
But this was not the ci,d ont, and
Dora easily obtained a schoOi. She de-
yclopcd governing talent which
| i. 4 , m
congeninl labor III the company OF little
children took her out OF herself and in
fused new lie into her hope deferred.
Every week she walked to the post
office, threo miles away, to ask for n
letter, going III with Il bright flush i'll
either cheek, and coming out pale and
dull-cycd after tho stab OF disappoint-
mrnt. | wonder that people in the
country are 80 anxious TO be Postmas-
ters; if they only knew it, they are act
ors in more tragedies than any member
of II theatrical stock-company. Much
sealed happiness passes through their
hands but they have to refuse many a
Mariana in the Moated Grange -
weary women who reach hand out OF
their dull lives for letter and draw it
back empty.
It was far into the second year before
Joc's first letter came. 1t was surely a
fauciiul and foolish thing for school
mistress. to do, but Dora carried 1t to
her own little room and put on tho red
dress before she read Joc's letter.
Joe was working in the mines in Colo
RADIO, His luck had not yet come, il
nuggets at least, but hard work ans
sober living were slowly giving him the
advantage over the other miners. He WA
never so well, and he loved her bette
than all the world,
Dora lived on this letter for many
weeks, and she set Colorado for
, couv SO often to her scholars that the,
will write that word better than any otiie
to their dying day.
| Letters came oftencr as years drew on
4, sometimes Joe was mp III the world
! sometimes down; once his carefully
I,oarled gold WIS stolen from HIM, an'
{ he had TO begin all over again; but tin
was nothing to a long illness in which
: friend wrote to Dora SO soon as Joe wa
I out of danger. Then Dora envied tn
4 doves their wings.
, New Years day was the hardest ot al
TO bear. She could not help stron
a pressure of excitement when she put o
the red dres;, which grew more an
, more old.fashioned, and watched tn
/, sun go down on the road which Joe mus
4 travel when he should come home. Tn
. next morning she fitted her shoulder
, sadly to the burden of another year.
One young farmer after another fonn
his way to the old farmhouse on SUI
! day evenings, and Dora pushed thei
- down an inclined plane Of discourage
!. ment so gently that they scarcely kne
whether they had meant to court her
d not. It was not the least OF her trials
o meet the entreaties Of her mother an
the rough arguments Of her father whe
, ,,,,., ,,, l,,, ,n,ra ,araietaut euItOrS won