Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1882-06-09
DORA'S TRIAL.

II do WISH said Mrs. Prudence Hall,
holding her darniug needle in md-air for
moment over the ,arse blue sock sha
was mending, II do wish you could see
your way claar to marrying Seth Hallett.
He wants y,n the worst kind, and he'd be
such Il good provider."
But | don't like him wei! enough.
=. udy; and want something besides
neat and drink AID two calico dresses a
year."
Mrs. Prudence Hall had sprained her
ankle. and WAS forced, soreiy against her
vii, to sit day after day in an upper cham
F.,ar. with q Terrible consciousness that ev-
erytbing about the farm was relapsing into
chaos and old night for want of her over
light Her pretty sister Dora had come
IL stay with her; but she Twas only child,
= u know"
But t'lere are two kinds Of love in this
<vorld.'' sid Mrs. Hall, after pause, in
which she had been taking counsel with
herself whether Dora IVES old enough to
rs talked to on sHch matters at all, and it
dashed upon her that "the child" was
nearly twenty years old. Perhaps you
Ike Seth well Ell ugh TO marry him. only
you don't know it,
Tell me about the two kinds of love. "
said Dora, Innocently. II thought love
was love the world over"
81 have never known but one kind,
think, Dora. When married Ovid Hall,
y. was the most well-to- do young man in
.Hse parts, aud we never had II quarrel
while he lived. He was g 'od. practical
sort Of a man, and never asked me to do
anything unreasonable.
"What if he had ?'' asked Dora.
swell, guess [ should have argued
him out Of it. But there is kind of love
that will draw women through fire and
water. 1t makes them throw themselves
away on poor shiftless men that will never
provide for them nor. their children. and
IT, know it as veil AS anybody else does.
+ is the greatast wonder to me why such
a useless feeling should ever have been
creatcd.'
Dora bent low over her work to hide her
roguish smiles at her sisters disc )urse
but at this p int she fixed her gray eyes on
Prudence, not smiling, but simply earnest.
"Such love brings happiness sometimes,
suppose" said Dora.
Next to never" said Prudence. with
great decision. I'VE amt made to be
happy. and anything that's too good al
ways leaves a bid taste in the mouth
Comfort is bird in the hand, and you
don't gain anything by letting it fly on the
chance OF happiness
s'Did you ever know any one about here,
Prudence, that threw herself away for
love? 1t seems to me they won look at
man unless they have farm all ready
for,them."
"That where they are right, y said Pru-
dence. "You are rather given to high
flying notions, and it's time you found out
that bread don't grow ready buttered.-
Yes, I do know one girl who was pretty
and smart and had no end of chances to
get married. Il think my David courted
| her a spell, but he would never own it,
and she would have that shiftless creature,
| Joe Raymond, who never could make one
hand wash the other. Even when she WIS
a-dying she pretended that she had
been happy and wouldn't have done no
other way if she had it to do oyer again. "
| ssWas she Joe's mother ?'' asked Dora
quickly.
eyes. to be sure; and when she died We
| took him to bring up and work on the
farm. He's more than paid his way, but
he's a rolling stone like his father, and
| won't never come to anything. | forgot
| to tell you-he's going Tomorrow.
"Going Tomorrow cried Dora, with a
great start. II thought his time wasn't
out for another MONTH"
swell, it amt rightly out till he's 81,
but he was in such hurry to be off that
gave him the last month"
Then silence fell upon them.
These two women had the same father
and mother, though a score of years lay
between them. Prudence had been born
in the early married life Of her parents,
when they were struggling with a stony