Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1882-08-03
PART IL.

AS the summer changed to autumn,
and the September haze hung over the
far blue hills, and the katy-dids and
crickets made vocal the silent night, the
ever-watchful eye OF Mrs. Rothe saw a
change in her daughter. Her eyes were
brighter and larger than of yore, and
her color came and went as she con-
versed or was silent; and, sometimes,
when her mother saw the PARKWAY look
in the pensive face of her fair-cheeked
daughter, she would sigh softly, and,
wiping the dimness from her glasses,
murmur:
johanna, child, the Lord grant that
when the lot falls on you it may not be
for the wrong one.''
They were sitting in the graveyard,
one afternoon, when these words fell
from the mothers lips, and this time
they did not fall unnoticed by the
daughter.
"Mother," she said, turning her face
from the glory of the western sky, while
her cheek took on the flush of the dying
day, s'the disposal of the lot is with the
Lord. Why should be concerned
about it?"
The good woman felt rebuked; yet
her heart had many misgivings in regard
to JOhanna'S future.
eyes, DEAR" she replied, "perfect
love casteth out fear" Yet she sighed
again as she spoke, for she thought of
the long past, when the lot had fallen on
another Johanna, and that Johanna had
tried to think that it was the Lord 8
will, and had married the man she did
not love, while the one she did love
married the girl who had given her
hearts best affection to Johanna's own
husband; and she had known it all, for
Anna Weisser was her intimate girl
friend, and they had met and prayed to-
gether about it, while the young men
went to the "Council of the Elders,"
and the lots were cast. But neither Anna
nor that other Johanna had questioned
the will of the Lord. They had mar
ried men to whom the lot assigned
them, and every one said that they were
both very happily married; nor did
they themselves ever hint that it was
otherwise. Yet, nevertheless, Johanna
Rothe knew that, in marrying David
Rothe, she had missed out of her life a
certain happiness which she felt was
possible and intended for every good
woman to possess; and now her whole
heart, bound up, as it was, in her
daughter, dreaded lest she, too, should
miss what the mother-heart felt was
possible and right that she should pos
sess. So, very gently and very sadly,
she added:
"'Thy ways, o Lord, are mysterious,
and no man knoweth them.'',
Johanna the younger made no reply,
and again turned her face to the sunset
glory, and for time both were silent;
while above them, in the branches
among the yellow leaves, robin piped
his farewell song, and cricket chirped
in the grass at their feet.
Mother!" at length exclaimed Jo-
hanna, without turning her face from
the crimson and gold low down in the
west, "would God ever let the lot fall so
as to make people unhappy; so that, in
obeying it, one would have to do what,
under any other circumstances, he would
not do?"
Sometimes He does" replied the
mother.
Johanna looked puzzled.
"In marriage, mother?" she asked,
with deep blush, still keeping her face
turned away.
"Yes, my darling"
"Then would not obey what men
called His WILL" the young girl an
swered, firmly, almost defiantly, turning
upon her mother flushed face and bril-
liant, flashing eyes.