The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1882-06-01

possible, the doctor replied. eff you
think I am exaggerating, or don't know
what l am talking about, send for any
reputable physician you please and ask
him to tell you the truth"
"Oh Mary! There isn't any way of do
ing the things you speak of. Clarke
feels awfully poor this summer, and l
have been trying harder than ever to
make the ends lap over"
"Whers is Clarke?" the doctor in
quired.
"He's down at the creek, haying."
81 will drive down and have talk
with him right away" said my friend,
making ready to leave.
"Oh! Mary! Don't you think there is
any other way?"
The poor woman had broken down
completely now, and the doctor held her
for q moment in her strong arm and
caressed her fondly.
"No other way, sis, she replied; "but
we will do the best we can. There's no
telling what good rest and careful
nursing may do for your poor tired body,
my dear"
"I was going to take you to some
other places" doctor remarked. as we
drove away, "but it would have been
the same old story; work. work, work,
without rest or change from years end
to years end. My mother killed her.
self by her attempts to get ahead of
time. Two sisters have travelled the
same road that Anna has started on,
one of them absolutely dropping dead
in her kitchen in the midst of her work.
This is the kind of thing I could not
endure to see go on. knew it was all
wrong as soon as I knew anything, and
when became old enough to have a
voice in my own education, 1 persisted
in taking different course. My sister
Anna has tried so hard to get ahead of
time and make things lap over that
she has abused and probably killed
herself, beside criminally neglecting
and mismanaging her children.
don't suppose she has averaged over
Eve hours sleep out Of the twenty-four
during the last five years, and think Of
that amount of rest for woman whose
brain and muscle are forever in use!
Every year I come up here and find
things going from bad to worse among
my relatives and most of my friends,
and the horrible part of it is that moth
ing one can say or do will ever have the
slightest effect"
"Don't you think your very natural
anxiety about your sister may have col
ored your diagnosis little?" inquired.
''Not in the least" my companion
answered. "Anna's pulse was one hun
dred and twelve. The respiration was
labored and ominously frequent. There
is no installing such signs"
SHow cou1d sha koan at worl- with
such q pulse as that?" asked.
"By the exercise of will power" said
the doctor.
"In our family will power is direct
inheritance. If it could only have been
put to good use how much might
have been accomplished! My dear,
this will power eats salt pork when good
beef and the most nu tritious food are
absolute necessities. 1t makes all its
cream into butter that the cash may
lap over.'' 1t drinks skim milk, and
works nineteen hours out of twenty
four"
Soon after this the doctor dropped me
at my boarding house,
"Now you know all about it," she
remarked in parting, "and if any one
ever asks you why Mary Stedman did
not remain among her relatives, you
can say that she declined to live among
criminals and suicides"
Five months after the above incident
sister Anna died, and one year from
that date the widower married again.
The second wife. is duplicate of the
first, working night and day and clay
ing up" for future which it is more
than likely she never will enjoy.-Chris-
tian Union.