The Republican journal., 1882-03-23

this light-hearted joyousness that made
her so near and dear to her boys. Be-
sides, she was thoroughly in love with
her husband, a well meaning, weak mind
ed vacillating man, with peculiar ability
for wasting money. He speculated a lit
tie, drank a little, ventured little into
imported stock, did everything but work.
1t was all done, too, ''for your sake, Liz
zy;" and presently, when every foot Of
land was gone but the wooden homestead
and thirty acres which her father had
settled on Lizzy, he looked upon himself
as heroic kind of fellow who had sacri
feed himself for his family. About that
time he had a stroke Of paralysis and be-
came helpless for the remainder Of his life.
Fortunately he could not interfere now
with the thirty acres.
Lizzy, therefore, at twenty five, found
herself with the weight upon hel Of four
unruly boys to feed, clothe and make into
the gentle, God fearing, manly men she
would have them be; with this patient,
too, decrepit and doting in his youth, to
nurse day and night If he had been
blind Milton, she could not have accepted
the trust more reverently. or served him
more tenderly.
What did she do in this strait9 Moth
ing which Miss Jane would call noble /:
she wrote no book to startle the reading
| world, opened no new career for her sex !;
tens of thousands of other women are un-
noticed doing to-day just what she did.
She waited on Stuben, she made her boys
shirts and trousers, she cooked, washed
d shes, raised poultry, farmed the land.
At first, not being able to hire help often,
she ploughed, hoed corn, fed the stock
herself her solid fragrant butter was as
much work of tine art as the conven-
tional lilies on tides in which Miss Ways
aesthetic soul eXults; it brought the high
est price iii the market, so did her pigs.
1t was about this time that Miss Jane,
with much disgust. saw her in the village
selling her products; if she had had keen
er eyes she might have detected some
thing more in the loW-spoken, bright
eyed woman than a maker of butter and
breeder of pigs If she had followed her
and her two boys as they drove home in
the wagon in the moonlight and listened
to their talk, she would have known that
there was a word of power and meaning
in this mothers soul, never breathed in
lIluSlC VI NlllltlI lOl IL UOOk, Nultu Oily
her children had heard and understood
All the affections, the modesties, the
honors of life, all their knowledge of God,
came to them through it.
Stuben died Il few years ago; one of
LizZy's boys became physician, two are
farmers, and all live near their mother:
honest and affectionate. though rather
stupid sons and husbands. The youngest
son, David, is a clergyman, preaching in
two or three poor parishes in Nevada,
barely keeping himself alive on three
hundred dollars a year. His mother went
to visit him last summer, am afraid
David is nearer to her heart than the
others, for there was always a singular
likeness and kinship between her and this
youngest boy. saw him when She heard
him preach for the first time. The con
gregation was made up of few Indians
and whites; the sermon was one OF extra
ordinary power SO simple in wording that
the most ignorant hearer could under
stand it, but marked by a strange insight
into the highest truth, and a passionate
human sympathy. The face Of his mother
was transtigured as she heard Her
hands were clasped, her eyes shone She
drew her breath quickly as if she herself
were the speaker.
She was no longer dumb in the world.
"At last" she seemed to say. at
last" The Congregationalist.